Maryland State Highway Association's Approach to Tracking Contract Maintenance / Maryland DOT
The MDOT SHA reports labor, equipment, and materials costs for its State forces’ work into the electronic team activity cards (eTAC) system. These costs are captured by asset or unit. MDOT SHA enters contract data into the FHWA Financial Management Information System (FMIS) and other contract management software. The contract systems and eTAC assign a Project Cost Activity (PCA) code for each expense. The PCA codes allow the costs from similar work, delivered by different means, to be aggregated. The PCA codes are linked to the twenty-one Maryland Condition Assessment Reporting System (MCARS) elements to align costs with asset performance. MDOT SHA uses QlikView to aggregate the work output, cost data, and MCARS data and associate each to the appropriate PCA code for the work activity accomplished (see Figure 6-B, a screenshot of QlikView provided by MDOT SHA). Data aggregation with QlikView works well if data is accurate with the PCA codes, costs, and accomplishments.
Screenshot of QlikView
Source: MDOT SHA
This approach enables MDOT SHA to perform an analysis to determine whether in-house or contracted maintenance provides a more cost-efficient result for the activity or asset. This is an important analysis to consider when developing maintenance work programs as it allows an agency to be strategic with limited resources” (Allen, et. al. 2023).
*Note: This practice example was derived from NCHRP Research Report 1076: A Guide to Incorporating Maintenance Costs into a Transportation Asset Management Plan.
Read more in the chapter: 6.6.2 Capturing Maintenance Cost and Accomplishment Data