Workshop Materials for Preserving and Enhancing the Functionality of Highways in Texas (0-6208-P2)

This PowerPoint presentation was presented to Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) district offices as part of the workshop "Preserving and Enhancing the Functionality of Highways in Texas." The objective of the workshop was to promote the importance of highway functionality; review functionality in the highway lifecycle; provide how-to materials to preserve, maintain, and enhance functionality; promote coordination between TxDOT and its local partners; and get participants¿ input and feedback. The workshop identifies the sources of deterioration of state highway functionality that occurs over time and what actions can be taken to preserve, recover, and enhance functionality. Functionality should be considered in all stages of a highway's lifecycle, and it should be protected, preserved, and-where possible-enhanced during the course of planning, growth and development, operations, and maintenance. TxDOT has two basic choices to address functionality of the highway system and its component highways: (1) preserve functionality at a high level through effective planning, operational and safety management, refinement, and proactive infrastructure maintenance; or (2) adopt a reactive and corrective approach to fix things after they deteriorate. Functional preservation is more cost-effective and alleviates the need for as many major projects, many of which take years to get through programming and project development.