Don’t Pass Deferred Maintenance Costs to the Next Generation!: The Effects of Politics on State Highway Maintenance Spending

2021 ◽  
pp. 1087724X2110472
Author(s):  
Jiseul Kim

Routine maintenance spending for public infrastructure is critical for reducing life-cycle costs, and improving asset preservation and quality. Yet, states focus more on building new roads and expansion than maintaining existing assets’ conditions. Deferred maintenance costs are transferred to the future taxpayers, and they will eventually pay the expensive price. So far, there is little academic endeavor to examine the determinants of state and local routine maintenance spending. This study uses a panel data analysis covering 47 states from 1995 to 2009 to examine the effects of politics on state highway routine maintenance spending. The study finds that political incentive and conflict are key factors delaying state highway routine maintenance spending. The re-election-minded governors and legislatures tend to allocate less funding to maintenance to satisfy the current taxpayers. The study further finds that politically-divided states spend less on highway maintenance due to higher transaction costs in the policy-making process.

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Gonza MUYINGO

The reported maintenance costs per unit area within the public rental housing sector in Sweden are consistently higher than those within the private rental sector. This paper uses crosssectional panel data analysis as well as a questionnaire survey sent to 196 managers in the private and public housing sectors to identify the factors that might explain this divergence. The findings indicate that “fundamental” factors such as the age of the houses or the composition of the tenants cannot explain the observed difference. However how the activities are classified and the timing of the measures are factors that can. The conclusions from the study are that the public companies should act more as the private sector in their accounting; wait longer than they currently do before carrying out some renovations; and that they should be more stringent when determining the resources to spend on large-scale maintenance and/or renovation projects.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.25) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Prescilla Palis ◽  
Mohd Saidin Misnan

As Malaysia continues to focus its efforts on becoming an education hub, universities are vital places where learning processes, teaching and research activities are conducted. A university is a factor of production in producing graduates, and the university buildings are considered to be assets and resources. Hence, to prolong a university building lifecycle to ensure all university activities continue performing at an optimum level, building maintenance management is vital. Despite the fact that several previous studies have been conducted in this area, there continues to be maintenance issues surrounding university buildings. The maintenance of university buildings has always been viewed as an insignificant activity. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to critically review key factors that affected maintenance costs of university buildings, and consequently propose different approaches to resolve this issue. The present paper reviewed related literature from previous studies and publications. As a result of the comprehensive review, it was identified that key factors that affected university building maintenance costs were fund allocations allocated by university management teams for maintenance departments, user behaviours, environmental factors, university design complexities and the quality of components and materials of university buildings. Each factor identified was critically examined and addressed to ensure that university buildings would be well-maintained.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-300
Author(s):  
Josip Viskovic ◽  
Pasko Burnac ◽  
Ivan Ramljak

This paper, using panel data analysis, tries to identify factors regarding the different convergence rates of CESEE EU member countries’ real income between 2002 and 2018. Stylized convergence facts are identified and the drivers of economic growth based on production function, i.e. the accumulation of labour and capital and total factor productivity (TFP) growth have been analysed. Moreover, paper takes into account other variables that have been recognized as growth determining factors - trade openness, FDI, labour market and integration level, as well as TFP determining factors - institutional quality, innovation and human capital. Based on the research results trade openness and gross capital formation have been identified as key factors regarding real income growth of analysed countries. Also, it has been confirmed that growth of CESEE countries is strongly affected by the growth of Eurozone. Finally, the authors’ conclusion is that several CESEE countries are facing institutional convergence challenges.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 1962-1985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Manu ◽  
Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu ◽  
Colin Booth ◽  
Paul Olaniyi Olomolaiye ◽  
Akinwale Coker ◽  
...  

Purpose The achievement of sustainable development goals is linked to the procurement of public infrastructure in a manner that meets key procurement objectives, such as sustainability, value-for-money, transparency and accountability. At the heart of achieving these procurement objectives and others is the capacity of public procurement institutions. Whereas previous reports have hinted that there are deficiencies in procurement capacity in Nigeria, insights regarding critical aspects of organisational capacity deficiencies among different tiers of government agencies is limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical gaps in the procurement capacity of state and local government agencies involved in the procurement of public infrastructure in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a survey of public infrastructure procurement personnel which yielded 288 responses. Findings Among 23 operationalised items that are related to organisational procurement capacity, none is perceived to be adequate by the procurement personnel. Additionally, among 14 procurement objectives only 1 is perceived as being attained to at least a high extent. Originality/value The findings underscore the acuteness of organisational procurement capacity weaknesses among public procurement institutions within Nigeria’s governance structure. It is, thus, imperative for policy makers within state and local government to formulate, resource and implement procurement capacity building initiatives/programmes to address these deficiencies. Additionally, the organisational procurement capacity items operationalised in this study could serve as a useful blueprint for studying capacity deficiencies among public infrastructure procurement agencies in other developing countries, especially within sub-Saharan Africa where several countries have been implementing public procurement reforms.


Author(s):  
Natalia B. Ermasova ◽  
Carol Ebdon

This chapter provides a case study from the United States regarding public capital budgeting and management on the federal, state, and local levels. The U.S. case of the public investment process (or positive theory for United States public investment) is described and compared with the normative theory outlined in Chapter 1 to understand the deviation between the positive and normative theories. This chapter presents an analysis of four main components of the USA capital budgeting system including (1) long-term public capital planning, (2) annual public budgeting and financing, (3) project execution, and (4) public infrastructure evaluation. In addition, this chapter shows public infrastructure needs and financing issues in the United States.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Santos ◽  
Ivo Pereira ◽  
Isabel Azevedo

Detailed documentation and software tests are key factors for the success of a web application programming interface (API). When designing an API, especially in a design first approach, it is relevant to define a formal contract, known as API specification. This document must contain all necessary information regarding the API behavior. Thereby, the specification can be used to dynamically generate API components like documentation, client and server code, and software tests, reducing development and maintenance costs. This chapter presents a study of OpenAPI specification and its application on designing a new RESTful API for E-goi. It also presents a set of solutions for generating documentation, client code libraries, and test cases.


Author(s):  
William C. Lozier ◽  
Mary Ellen Kimberlin ◽  
Robin Grant

Maintaining the safety and mobility of the state highway network in a cost-effective manner is a top priority for any state department of transportation (DOT). As funding for major new infrastructure becomes scarce and traffic levels steadily rise, maximizing and maintaining the existing highway system becomes increasingly critical. For the Ohio DOT, the task of maintaining Ohio’s highways is massive. While only 35th in geographic size, the state of Ohio has the nation’s 5th-highest traffic volume traveling on the 4th-largest Interstate network and has the 2nd-largest bridge inventory. Traffic in Ohio has grown by 90% during the last 20 years, and this growth pattern is expected to continue. Ohio’s Interstate highways were built in the 1960s and have far exceeded their 20-year design life, creating an even greater need for effective highway maintenance. During the last 3 years, Ohio DOT adopted strategic initiatives to revamp the department’s maintenance management methods, improve practices, and optimize resource use. Focused on redefining, prioritizing, and tracking all maintenance resources, the department set out to combine planning, implementation, quality-review, and cost-accounting data into one manageable, easily accessed system. The product of this intensive effort, the Ohio DOT county annual work plans, is revolutionizing the way the department approaches maintenance management. Before the implementation of the work plans in July 2001, roadside conditions and maintenance efforts varied widely across the state. Following the inaugural year of the work plans, conditions were meeting statewide standards, reflecting the state’s new focus on more effectively managing Ohio’s transportation investment.


1998 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore H. Poister ◽  
Richard H. Harris ◽  
Joseph Robinson

Public works agencies are focusing increasingly on the concepts of quality and customer service in response to growing demands for accountability and improved performance. In an effort to gauge customers' satisfaction with the services they provide, state transportation departments are beginning to solicit feedback from their customers to complement more traditional performance measures. This article reports the findings of a large-scale survey of the principal customers of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's highway maintenance program. The sample size and the disproportionally stratified sampling strategy were aimed at providing reliable data for 67 individual county-level maintenance units. The results indicate widespread variation in motorists' ratings of road quality, which correlate moderately with more traditional engineering-oriented measures of road quality, but it is clear that they offer a different perspective on service quality, which transportation departments will have to learn more about if they are serious about improving customer satisfaction.


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