Events

Transportation infrastructure enterprise asset management (EAM) involves the systematic process of designing, operating, maintaining, upgrading, and disposing of assets cost-effectively. It integrates engineering, financial, and operational aspects to optimize asset lifecycle performance and investment. Key components include asset inventory, condition assessment, performance monitoring, risk management, and strategic decision-making based on data analytics. The goal is to ensure sustainable, safe, and efficient transportation systems by prioritizing maintenance and upgrades, extending asset life, and improving service delivery within budget constraints. The seminar presentation summarizes the outcome of a pilot project that focused on developing and demonstrating a novel asset investment planning (AIP) and optimization methodology for integration into a broader EAM. The project, a collaborative effort between Rutgers’ Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) and the Port Authority of NY/NJ (PANYNJ), aimed to demonstrate the implementation of predictive analytics, asset lifecycle planning, and optimization techniques to support multi-year investment planning, trade-off analysis, and to optimize budget allocation and investment strategies. Applying the proposed techniques is expected to contribute to PANYNJ’s business strategy to enhance asset lifecycle modeling and investment planning decisions to meet State of Good Repair (SGR) objectives while ensuring the long-term sustainability and performance of the agency’s asset portfolio.

Bio: Ali Maher, Ph.D., F.ASCE, is a civil and environmental engineering professor and director of Rutgers University's Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT). Under his leadership, CAIT has grown into a program of excellence in multimodal infrastructure asset management, resiliency, and transportation mobility. A USDOT, University Transportation Center since 1996, CAIT is currently a member of the National Center for Infrastructure Transformation. Maher obtained his BSc, MSC, and Ph.D. in civil/environmental engineering from the University of Michigan. He was the past president of the United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER), a current member of ASCE’s Geo-Institute on Soil Improvement, a member of the board of directors of the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure and serves in the editorial boards of several technical journals including ASTM’s Geotechnical Testing Journal, and Civil Structures Health Monitoring (CSHM).