Visualization of Failed Highway Assets Through Geo-Coded Pictures in Google Earth and Google Maps

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has adopted an innovative highway asset management program known as Performance-Based Road Maintenance. Under the Virginia Tech-VDOT Partnership for Highway Maintenance Monitoring Programs, Virginia Tech’s Center for Highway Asset Management Programs provides independent assessment and technical leadership to support innovations in highway maintenance contracting and asset management practices. In the past, VDOT’s only way of checking a failed asset item was to go out to the field. This was very time consuming, especially if the assets were numerous or far apart. Moreover, it was often difficult to locate a specific asset item failure in a given segment. In other cases, finding the failure was impossible, since the condition of some asset items can change in a short span of time. This paper presents the development of a comprehensive system to display pictures of failed asset items. The major contribution of this system is to provide VDOT a tool to check any failed asset item from any computer with an Internet connection, eliminating the need to go out to the field and visit each individual site. The proposed technologies and processes were implemented as a pilot project in the Staunton South 2009 Maintenance Rating Program Evaluation. Results from the pilot project were used to evaluate how the system can enhance current highway asset management practices.