Houston METRO Unifies Transit Management, Maximizes Funding
Source: Gov Tech by Carlos Fernandez Scola and Senta Belay, SAP
Local government agencies like Houston METRO look to make wise use of funding coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to strengthen existing assets while innovating for the future.
Across the country, states and communities are ready to rebuild, whether that means refurbishing aging roads, bridges or railways, expanding Internet access, enhancing water systems, upgrading power grids or even building more widespread electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is intended to be the vessel through which these changes are supported. The roughly $1.2 trillion bill contains an estimated $550 billion in new spending above baseline levels. In short, it’s poised to significantly revitalize and boost the United States’ aging infrastructure.
But this revitalization calls for a balance between new construction and the maintenance of existing assets. This is something the Metropolitan Authority of Harris County (also known as Houston METRO) is experiencing firsthand. With over a third of its 4,500 employees dedicated to maintenance-related activity, the agency sees infrastructure and asset management as key priorities. But how can you ensure you’re managing assets properly and efficiently along the way? That new construction and maintenance of existing assets is being prioritized properly? And that — most of all — you continue innovating into the future?
AN AGENCY-WIDE APPROACH TO ASSETS
State of Good Repair (SOGR), defined as the condition in which an asset can perform at its fullest level of performance, is a transit asset management approach rapidly gaining popularity among state and local agencies. Often, assets are required to be in a SOGR to provide their required service. However, having fragmented systems — with, for instance, siloed departments separately working on assets — makes operability and visibility across an organization difficult.