**Abstract**

Federal and state transportation agencies across the world face a multitude of challenges to effectively maintain cost-effective core maintenance programs for managing a safe, yet sustainable transportation assets' program. The decisionmaking process involves several risk factors, and the prioritization of these factors could considerably affect both the level of utilization of these assets, as well as short- and long-term management protocols and plans for these agencies. The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act requires each state Department of Transportation in the United States to have a risk-based asset management plan in place to preserve the condition of their assets and improve the performance of the National Highway System. Many transportation agencies lack the financial and human resources to achieve their targets, and therefore they may opt to make trade-offs, lower targets, and perhaps drop some important objectives. Trade-off decisions can become clearer when objectives and targets are viewed through the lens of which options reduce the top-priority risks, such as reduced risk to safety, asset performance, or future costs. This chapter primarily focuses on emphasizing the importance of risk management in transportation networks and demonstrating the relationship between environmentally influenced risk management and sustainable management of state-controlled transportation assets in the United States. Several key parameters including risk assessment, financial risk and organizational behavior are addressed. Successful examples demonstrating how transportation agencies have identified how to best address a given risk, and in turn impact the resource allocation process are provided.

**Keywords:** state controlled transportation assets, environmentally influenced risk, risk assessment, financial risk, organizational behavior

## **1. Introduction**

Federal and state transportation agencies in several countries face a multitude of challenges to routinely maintain effective and cost-effective core maintenance programs for their transportation assets. The focus on uncertainty and variability highlights the importance of managing both opportunities and threats to the agency's priorities. Risk management is a strategic approach that usually adapts to agencies' specific circumstances. It can primarily pave the road for better alignment between operations and the agencies' strategic objectives.

The Transportation Research Board's (TRB) National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 08–93 [1] lists levels of risk within transportation agencies including the enterprise, program, project and activity levels. Risk management heightens the identification of threats that could impede objectives, particularly threats to the public's safety and well-being. Seismic excitations, scour damage, frequent flooding, and increasing storm frequency and severity exhibit significant risks to agencies hoping to sustain high-risk assets and to meet their asset-condition targets. Benefits of risk management include the ability to think strategically, produce time savings, enhance the ability to manage uncertainties, shift from a reactive mode to a proactive mode, and make informed decisions.
