Purpose -The increased need for, and maintenance of, infrastructure creates challenges for all agencies that manage infrastructure assets. To assist with these challenges, agencies implement asset management systems. This exploratory research investigated and compared the importance of barriers faced by agencies establishing transportation asset management systems in the US and Libya to contrast a case of a developed and developing country.Design/ methodology/approach -A literature review identified twenty-eight potential barriers for implementing an asset management system. Practitioners who participated in decisionmaking processes in each country were asked to rate the importance of each barrier in an online survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Kendall Concordance W, and Mann-Whitney were used to analyze the collected data.Findings -Through an analysis of 61 completed questionnaires, 14 barriers were identified as important by both the US and Libyan practitioners. Eleven additional barriers, primarily in the areas of political and regulatory barriers, were determined to be important only for Libya. These 11 barriers provide reasonable insights into asset management systems' barriers for developing countries.Practical implications -The barriers identified from this research can assist decision makers to recognize and overcome these barriers when implementing asset management systems, while recognizing the importance of country conditions. Originality/ value -The research identified standard barriers to implementing asset management systems. It also identified barriers that were specific to the country context, such as political and regulatory barriers in Libya. When viewed with the asset management literature, the results show broad applicability of some asset management barriers and the need to contextualize to country context (e.g., developing countries) for other barriers.