As guest Editors, we are pleased to present the first part of a themed issue of Infrastructure Asset Management on highway infrastructure decision-making: challenges and opportunities. This themed issue is devoted to recent research on the contexts and factors that influence decision-making for highway infrastructure. The articles in this issue address decision-related matters pertaining to the entire spectrum of highway infrastructure development (planning, designing, financing, acquisition, construction, maintenance and renewal, and disposal), including issues of resilience and sustainability. In response to the call for papers, we received expressions of interest from researchers from both academia and industry. In total, twenty-five papers were submitted for possible publication. Three to eight reviewers evaluated each paper anonymously and rigorously for quality, originality, and scholarly contribution.
In conformity with the journal’s usual practice of three/four papers per publication, the articles chosen for this special issue will be published in four installments. The papers presented in this first installment cover topics related to infrastructure investment evaluation with a focus on sustainability and decision support criteria and methodology.
The first article (Griffiths et al., 2018) evaluates a few sustainability rating tools for civil infrastructure projects that are currently being used in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and North America. The evaluation, which addresses gaps, biases, challenges and opportunities associated with these tools, is based on actual project data and the perspectives of the tool user. In their concluding remarks, the authors recommended that highway agencies enhance the tools they currently use by facilitating wider coverage of the tools to include real-world social and economic criteria in the evaluation and by extending their application to all the phases of the infrastructure life cycle.
The second article (Alqadhi et al., 2018) presents a case study that assesses the life-cycle economic costs and benefits associated with resurfacing of a major freeway in the US. The costs and benefits are incurred by three key stakeholders: agency, user and community. The article also throws light on the trade-offs that highway decision-makers implicitly make in terms of the stakeholder costs and benefits.
The third article (Ghahari et al., 2018) synthesises existing literature on decision support mechanisms for bridge painting. The paper discusses painting costs and schedules (treatment types and timings) in terms of frequency and paint condition standards. The paper discusses concepts and methodologies that have been used in past research to develop inputs for such schedules.
We conclude this Editorial by thanking all the authors of this special issue of Infrastructure Asset Management for their interest and contributions. In addition, we extend our sincere gratitude to all the reviewers for their thoughtful evaluations and constructive feedback. We are also grateful to the Editor-in-Chief, Professor Arun Kumar, the Editorial Panel and Kirsten Buchanan of ICE Publishing for their encouragement, assistance, and support in making this special issue possible.
