**10. Conclusions and future works**

Federal and state transportation agencies across the world are tasked with a multitude of challenges associated with routine, yet effective, maintenance and upgrade programs for the agencies' aging transportation assets. Challenging environmental conditions play a significant role in exacerbation the degradation, lowering the level of service, and increasing the risk of managing transportation agencies infrastructure assets. This is all happening at a time when limited funds are directed to sustain and enhance critical transportation assets. The chapter addresses the necessity to building and maintaining safe and sustainable transportation network for future generations, as well as highlights the implication of implementing life cycle cost measures to the process—as these measures add another level of complexity to the already difficult challenges facing transportation asset managers and decision makers.

The chapter stressed that the decision-making process involves several risk factors, and displayed the considerable effect of prioritizing these factors for both the level of utilization of these assets, as well as the short- and long-term management protocols and plans for transportation agencies. The relationship between environmentally influenced risk management and sustainable management of statecontrolled transportation assets in the United States is demonstrated. Several key parameters including risk assessment, financial risks and organizational behavior are addressed, and multiple successful examples for risk-based transportation asset management in the State of West Virginia are highlighted.

## **Acknowledgements**

The author would like to acknowledge the financial support and technical guidance provided by the West Virginia Department of Transportation–Division of Highways (WVDOH) while conducting several of the highlighted research studies.

The author would also like to acknowledge the diligent support provided by the research team members of the Encova Center for Engineering and Safety at Marshall University. The author would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Haroon Malik, Dr. Hai Nguyen, Dr. Hien Nghiem, Dr. Cumhur Cosgun, Dr. Tu Nguyen, and Dr. Kien Dinh for all their tireless efforts while conducting several of the studies highlighted herein.

The author would like to acknowledge the financial support provided through both the United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center and the Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability Center University Transportation Center (MATS UTC). The successful collaboration and technical support provided by Dr. Osman Ozbulut from the University of Virginia, while conducting two of the highlighted research projects, are greatly appreciated.

#### **Conflict of interest**

The author hereby declares no potential conflict of interest with respect to the research of this article.

*Environmentally Influenced Risk and Sustainable Management of State Controlled... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98232*
