Asset & Performance Management

Program Overview

Transportation Asset Management is a strategic approach to managing transportation infrastructure assets. It focuses on the business processes for resource allocation and utilization with the objective of better decision-making that is based upon quality information about assets and well-defined objectives expressed as Levels of Service. It can be understood as: getting the best results of performance for the preservation, improvement, and operation of infrastructure assets given the resources available. The key principles of Asset Management represent a way of doing business. Fully implemented, an Asset Management program will:

• Build, preserve, and operate transportation infrastructure services more cost effectively with improved asset performance;
• Deliver to customers the best value for public tax dollars spent; and
• Enhance the credibility and accountability of SDOT to the Mayor and City Council

Status & Condition Report

The 2020 Asset Status & Condition Report provides a description of the transportation infrastructure assets owned by SDOT; their value and condition; and the funding needed to maintain and preserve them. The statistics reflect asset status as of December 2020, unless otherwise noted with 2020 budgetary information.

If you would like to explore more information about SDOT’s transportation assets, see our Asset Web Map. The map is updated weekly with asset type, size, condition, location, ownership, and material data when known.

Performance Dashboards

The City's Performance Seattle online dashboard uses performance data to help Seattle's citizens and stakeholders monitor progress towards many performance-oriented goals.  SDOT was the pioneering department in developing this city-wide dashboard concept.  As can be seen to the right the site has been configured so that all goals can be seen within three sub-categories:  "Mobility", "Roads", and "Safety".

SDOT's Capital Projects Dashboard shown to the right uses open data to display summary information for all transportation projects with budgets over $500,000 (approximately 40 at any given time) which are currently in design or construction.  Project data is automatically updated once a month, drawing from various sources such as the City's financial management system and SDOT's project tracking program.

Seattle Sidewalk Accessibility Guide

Check out our Seattle Sidewalk Accessibility Guide, the go-to page for understanding our sidewalks and how to help make Seattle a safer, more accessible city.

Access to the Sidewalk Research and Maintenance Activities Web apps is on our Interactive Maps site, along with the Seattle Accessibility Route Planner and the SDOT Assets Map. 

SDOT Infrastructure Assets

Value-Based Arterial Pavement Management

SDOT has recently developed a new method for prioritizing pavement preservation and restoration work by determining the highest benefit-to-cost projects for street segments in need of improvement.  By estimating the cost to road users (cars, trucks, and bus passengers) of deteriorated pavement conditions as well as the associated cost of appropriate treatment to restore its condition, we calculate a benefit/cost ratio for restoring each street segment.  This benefit/cost ratio provides a first cut screening of street segments with highest priority to receive limited funds for pavement rehabilitation.

Asset Management Staff

Program Manager: Chad Allen, chad.allen@seattle.gov
Strategic Advisor: Ramandeep Josen, ramandeep.josen@seattle.gov

Asset Management Goals

• Sustainability
• Accountability
• Transparency
• Long-term / smart decision making
• Equitable
• Stewardship
• Agility

Asset Management Principles

These principles are the expression of an intention to reach an "end" state, and SDOT recognizes that we are embarking on a long-term effort to achieve that end state through a process of continuous improvement.

• Asset Inventory: SDOT will develop information on our asset inventories that will include all those assets that we are responsible for and will be ordered according to a hierarchy that reflects SDOT's business responsibilities and advanced Asset Management practices.
• Condition Assessment: SDOT will collect information on the condition of our assets that will be consistent and easily understood across all the categories of our assets. This information will be used to develop Asset Management plans for the maintenance and operation of our assets that will achieve sustainable service levels.
• Maintenance: SDOT will develop and adopt a maintenance policy for our assets that moves us toward an operation that achieves sustainable and high levels of performance based on agreed upon service levels. This policy will be assisted in its implementation by the development and use of a work management system that will work in cooperation with Asset Management practices to retain necessary maintenance and condition information.
• Levels of Service (LOS): SDOT will develop and use as benchmarks level of service information that reflects and includes to the extent feasible our customer and stakeholder input. We will use this information to report on our performance in meeting, or not meeting, the LOS and the implications thereof.
• Financial Planning: SDOT will incorporate full life-cycle costing into our financial planning to achieve cost-effective Asset Management planning and operation to minimize full life-cycle costs. Our financial reporting will reflect full lifecycle costing, and will include the implications of meeting, or failing to meet the funding requirements indicated by full life-cycle costing.
• CIP and Annual Budget Funding Processes and Procedures: SDOT will incorporate Asset Management principles into budgeting and CIP decision-making, across the Department so that decisions are based on critical asset needs, condition, and levels of service.
• Capital Improvement Planning: SDOT capital planning for replacement, renewal or new infrastructure will include Asset Management principles related to LOS, full life-cycle costing and an understanding of the criticality of the asset and its sustainable service levels.
• Information Technologies and Analysis and Evaluation: SDOT will adhere to its integrated systems strategy in developing information systems that support the business and user needs of Asset Management; be they inventory, condition, work management, financial, or project planning systems.
• Triple-Bottom Line: SDOT will align the environmental and social costs and impacts of asset decisions with the city's policy as embodied in its Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) and GreenDOT Initiative.
• Service Delivery Continuance: SDOT will continue effective and efficient service delivery while implementing Asset Management.
• Transportation Strategic Plan: The Transportation Strategic Plan targets will be guidance for Asset Management planning.
• Continuous Improvement: Asset Management will be implemented through a process of continuous improvement.
• Information Management: SDOT has adopted a data stewardship policy to ensure accurate, complete and timely information is readily available to support Asset Management.  Asset information is an essential but expensive foundation for effective Asset Management decisions.  Our information management practices will ensure that we collect and actively maintain only the critical minimum information at the level of quality needed by the business, and that this information is accessible from a single authoritative source. This policy recognizes data an asset in its own right.

5 Asset Management Building Blocks

1. Status & Condition : 
   • Identify what you own and the condition of the assets.
   • Identify the life span and value of the asset. 
2. Level of Service / Performance Measures:
   • Describe what the asset delivers.
   • Identify what the organization must do to meet the delivery and how to measure the Level of Service delivery.
3. Risk:  
   • Business risk exposure objectively identifies and ranks the risk present in the system by considering the consequences and likelihood of any given type of asset failure.
   • Once the risk is identified, the organization can take steps in operations, maintenance, and through capital decisions to mitigate risk.   
4. Lifecycle Cost Analysis: 
   • Identify the minimum cost for capital and operations & maintenance investment over the whole life of the asset, from acquisition to retirement, including rehabilitation and (partial) replacement during its life. 
   • Cost is measured against a triple bottom line that includes social,, environmental, and financial components.
5. Asset Management Plan: 
   • Combines information collected in the items above to build decision rules on asset investments and management and shares this information throughout the Department.