Management, maintenance, operation and preservation of infrastructure were some of the key topics discussed during the annual Transportation Research Board conference, held for the 94th time in Washington DC, January 10-15th. 12 AgileAssets employees were in attendance including CEO, Stuart Hudson and VPs Joe Garvey and David Armstrong. AgileAssets colleagues showcased the latest developments of our software and attended, presented and presided at a number of sessions and committees. The conference attracted around 10.000 people over five days, including traffic and transport experts and decision-makers from all continents.
On the technical side of the house, AgileAssets presented some updates from DOTs and private enterprises at sessions. During the session Advances in Pavement Management Systems, Dr. Siamak Saliminejad presented the poster Optimal Programming of Pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation Activities for Large-Scale Networks. During the session Managing Pavement Use Under Heavy Vehicle Loads, Dr. Ambarish Banerjee gave a lecture on A Practical Approach for Determining Permit Fees for Overweight Trucks, co-authored by Eric Perrone. Finally, Dr. Charles Pilson presented Capture and Use of Road Pavement Construction, Rehabilitation, and Maintenance Data at the session on Handing over Digitally Constructed Projects to Operations and Maintenance.
Other engagements include presiding at the Maintenance and Operations Management Committee (Steve Varnedoe) and the Maintenance and Preservation Section Executive Board (John Burkhardt).
One of our current focuses for strategic development is international expansion and collaboration. Subsequently, AgileAssets met with several interesting global and European actors in the field of asset management, including National Road Agencies (NRAs as they are called in Europe). These meetings underlined the need for the introduction of more systematic and holistic asset management tools to the international road and infrastructure community, not only on a basic level to monitor and preserve investments, but also as a sophisticated add-on to current pavement and bridge management systems, some of these often self-developed by the road owners or operators.
A meeting with the Forum of European Highway Research Laboratories, FEHRL, consolidated the need for more asset management standardization and collaboration across Europe and across the Atlantic.
Several meetings with suppliers of data collection also reaffirmed the need to introduce more partnerships to the field, in order to meet the demands of the road owners for turn-key solutions, where provision, handling, analysis and service is all included in the package.
Also, Stuart Hudson, Joe Garvey and I met with the World Bank to discuss mutual interests in Eastern Europe, where lasting commitment to services after major investments in large-scale infrastructure projects is in high demand.
Altogether, the TRB was a rewarding experience and venue to showcase the diversity, knowledge and products of AgileAssets. Good contacts were made, new technology explored and inspirational people befriended.
Learn more about the 2015 TRB Annual Meeting here.
Written by: Mikkel Bruun on January 23, 2015