Strategic Issues Facing Transportation, Volume 7: Preservation, Maintenance, and Renewal of Highway Infrastructure (2020)

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106 C H A P T E R 7 Guides to Emerging Highway PMR Practices Two guides have been prepared that will help both leadership and practitioners navigate the understanding, identification, application, and implementation of emerging and innovative PMR practices, whether they have been identified by this or other research, or are not yet known. The Practitioner’s Guide to Emerging Highway Preservation, Maintenance, and Renewal Prac- tices (Part B) examines the capability to advance specific emerging practices that respond to future PMR business needs and assists with making a go/no­go decision to adopt the practice, and then develops an initial implementation plan for its advancement. The audience focus for the guide is the practitioner—technical or discipline managers or specialists with a direct role in highway PMR activity and performance. While the guide features an in­depth examination of the 16 exemplary emerging PMR practices, it focuses on preparing agencies for a range of future scenarios in which highway PMR evolves and adapts and on opportunities to capitalize on emerging and innovative practices that can improve agency efficiency, effectiveness, and the experience of the agency’s customers. The Leadership’s Guide to Emerging Highway Preservation, Maintenance, and Renewal Practices (Part C) reviews agency capability to foster an organi zational and cultural environment that encourages and supports innovative practices, and suggests strategic actions for improvement. The audience focus for the guide is agency leadership, which includes the CEOs and those who directly report to the CEO and affect the direction, decisions, and collective day­to­day activities of the organization—often collectively referred to as “senior management.” A key tenet of the Leadership’s Guide is preparation rather than prediction as it recognizes that predicting which emerging or innovative PMR practice will be “the next big thing” is impracti­ cal. Instead, it discusses how an agency can maintain a culture that supports such practices to encourage and sustain a robust workforce that can anticipate future PMR needs and embrace those emerging and innovative practices highlighted in this report, and possibly discover other suitable innovative practices that have yet to be perceived.