TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 424: Engineering Economic Analysis Practices for Highway Investment explores how U.S. transportation agencies have applied engineering economics--benefit–cost analyses and similar procedures--to decisions on highway investments.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 424: Engineering Economic Analysis Practices for Highway Investment explores how U.S. transportation agencies have applied engineering economics--benefit–cost analyses and similar procedures--to decisions on highway investments.

This textbook provides a fundamental overview of the application of engineering economic principles to transportation infrastructure investments. Basic theory is presented and illustrated with examples specific to the transportation field. It also reviews the history of transportation finance, as well as current methods for funding transportation investments in the U.S. Future problems and potential solutions are also discussed and illustrated.

This primer provides a foundation for understanding the role of economic analysis in highway decision making. It is oriented toward state and local officials who have responsibility for assuring that limited resources get targeted to their best uses and who must publicly account for their decisions. Economic analysis is presented as an integral component of a comprehensive infrastructure management methodology that takes a long-term view of infrastructure performance and cost. The primer encompasses a full range of economic issues, including economic fundamentals, life-cycle cost analysis, benefit-cost analysis, forecasting traffic for benefit calculations, risk analysis and economic impact analysis.

Transportation Asset Management (TAM) is a strategic approach to maximize the benefits from resources used to operate, expand, and preserve the transportation infrastructure. It takes a long-term perspective of infrastructure performance and cost, and considers investment options in a comprehensive and informed way. TAM integrates the various disciplines related to infrastructure management, including planning, engineering, economics, and budgeting. It is systematic and fact based, and therefore dependent on good information and analytical capabilities. Economic analysis plays a critical role in TAM by facilitating tradeoff analysis, in which the net benefits of competing investment options are compared in terms of their "dollars and cents" impact on the public. Information from the analysis feeds back to planners and engineers, allowing them to identify the most beneficial investments.