ARDOT Advances Performance-Based Bridge Investment with manageX™

The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) manages 7,332 state-owned bridges totaling more than 63 million square feet of deck area. The agency established a performance target of maintaining less than 8% of bridges in Poor condition. To support this objective, ARDOT required infrastructure asset management software capable of supporting condition monitoring, budget-constrained planning, and defensible capital programming.

By using manageX™ by AssetIntel™, ARDOT aligned deterioration modeling with project-level decision-making and reduced its Poor bridge percentage at 5.7%, outperforming its established threshold while preserving fiscal discipline.

ARDOT required a planning framework capable of integrating system-level modeling, engineering validation, and financial programming within a single environment suitable for state and federal oversight.

The Operational Challenge

ARDOT’s bridge program required alignment between three critical functions:

1. Deterioration modeling to forecast system performance
2. Budget planning to operate within fixed funding levels
3. Engineering review to validate real-world treatment decisions

Previously, these functions operated in sequence rather than within a unified workflow. Modeling outputs represented theoretical scenarios. When field realities required modification, adjusting the program required reworking portions of the analysis, limiting efficiency and iterative refinement.

Previously, these functions operated in sequence rather than within a unified workflow. Modeling outputs represented theoretical scenarios that did not easily incorporate field-driven adjustments. When real-world conditions required changes, updating the program often required revisiting portions of the analysis instead of allowing continuous feedback and iterative refinement.

For a statewide bridge inventory of this scale, disconnects between modeling and implementation reduced agility in capital planning. ARDOT needed infrastructure asset management software that connected performance modeling directly to executable project programming.

Implementation of manageX™

With manageX™, ARDOT established a single environment where performance targets, cost assumptions, deterioration curves, and funding constraints operate together, enabling better decision-making.

As part of AssetIntel’s infrastructure asset management software platform, manageX™ enables agencies to define measurable targets such as maintaining Poor bridges below 8%, then apply treatment rules and deck area-based cost calculations to generate a prioritized project list that satisfies maximizes both performance objectives and available budget.

This output becomes the starting point for structured engineering validation rather than a static recommendation.

Engineering-Level Validation

Following scenario generation, engineers review recommended structures using inspection and maintenance data from inspectX™ within the AssetIntel™ ecosystem.

In one example presented during the peer and user group meeting, a bridge was selected for replacement based on condition triggers and modeled cost projections exceeding one million dollars. Upon review, engineers determined that localized scour at the foundation could be corrected through targeted in-house repair.

Instead of proceeding with full replacement, ARDOT deferred the capital-intensive treatment. The decision avoided approximately 1.5 million dollars in projected expenditure while preserving structural performance.

This adjustment was made directly within manageX™ using the Re-Run functionality.

Re-Run Tool and Iterative Planning

The Re-Run capability allows ARDOT to modify individual project decisions without rebuilding the entire scenario.

When a structure is deferred or reclassified, the system re-executes the scenario using the same funding limits and performance targets. manageX™ then selects the next highest-priority projects that maintain compliance with the defined objective.

This allows ARDOT to:

• Preserve alignment between TAMP projections and programmed projects
• Integrate engineering judgment without compromising fiscal targets
• Conduct year-by-year refinement within a controlled analytical framework
• Maintain defensible documentation of funding decisions

Planning and execution operate within the same decision structure rather than as separate exercises, which is fundamental to effective infrastructure asset management software.

Financial Transparency

manageX™ provides treatment-level visibility into expenditures by year and project type. ARDOT can analyze how funds are distributed between preservation, rehabilitation, and replacement strategies. Projects can be reviewed in list format or spatially through mapping tools.

This visibility supports executive oversight, program accountability, and compliance with reporting requirements. It also prevents disproportionate allocation toward high-cost replacements when preservation strategies achieve performance objectives more efficiently.

Given the size of ARDOT’s bridge inventory, improved capital allocation efficiency results in measurable statewide fiscal impact.

Outcome

Through integration of deterioration modeling, fiscal planning, and structured engineering review within manageX™, ARDOT:

• Maintained Poor bridges at 5.7%, below its 8% target
• Reduced unnecessary capital expenditures
• Improved alignment between modeling outputs and executable programs
• Strengthened defensibility of funding decisions under federal and state oversight

Conclusion

The Arkansas Department of Transportation’s implementation of manageX™, AssetIntel’s infrastructure asset management software platform, demonstrates a performance-based bridge investment framework in which modeling, budgeting, and engineering validation operate as a continuous, controlled process.

By embedding iterative scenario refinement within a single system, ARDOT has strengthened program governance, optimized capital allocation, and maintained measurable control over system condition outcomes.

Reference:

ARDOT presentation at the 2025 AssetIntel™ Annual User Group Meeting