Civil Engineering Association

Development of Levels of Service for the Interstate Highway System

This report presents a level-of-service-based approach to describing performance of Interstate Highway System (IHS) assets. It also provides a template and process that state departments of transportation (DOTs) can use to implement this approach for managing their IHS assets. Well-described levels of service are an effective means for communicating with public officials, highway users, and other stakeholders about asset performance and resources needed to ensure adequate performance. The IHS, the result of a major national investment, is vital to the nation's economy and an increasingly critical contributor to global production and distribution systems, but the system's assets are owned and managed by the states. While the specific measures that define excellent or poor levels of service may vary from one state to another, a consistent framework and measures for IHS levels of service would support benchmarks that DOTs and other responsible agencies can use to assess their Interstate maintenance and preservation needs and management their IHS assets.