Published September 2007

Mapping Assets

By Mary Shafer (page 86)

Municipal and utility managers report on the many planning and productivity advantages of GPS and GIS software and tools.

Software is prevalent in every industry these days. In some, it takes over repetitious tasks. For cleaning business operators, global positioning system (GPS) tracking software, coupled with wireless mechanisms onboard service vehicles, helps keep track of a fleet in real time, aiding efficient dispatching.

Many municipalities use GPS to track their fleets and also rely on geographic information system (GIS) software for mapping assets, inventorying structural systems, and planning projects. GIS integrates with GPS coordinates to make public works and utility departments run faster, more smoothly and with more precision. Here is how some municipal professionals are using GPS and GIS to help their departments.

“We started out much like everyone else probably does with the GIS software,” recalls David Gregory, director of public utilities for the City of Gallatin, Tenn. “We used it to map out all our separate utility assets: water, sewer, natural gas. Mainly, it was an inventory function, and we add to that databank every time we send crews out to do a cleaning or jetting job.”

The crew is issued a map printed out by the ArcInfo GIS package from ESRI that shows utility assets previously located by a Topcon Total Station GPS from Topcon Positioning Systems Inc.

“Topcon has its own software to collect data,” says GIS coordinator Troy Warren. “We convert that data to shape files that can be imported into the GIS. Crew members in the field will mark up the map if they find any assets not located on that map, and we’ll use our CAD system to add those into the databank.”

Gregory adds, “For cleaning projects, we’re mainly concerned with manholes and valves. But those field additions are critical to having a complete picture of all our utilities, so it’s an important use of both software systems. This way, we can accurately plan time, equipment and human resources for rehab jobs.”

Correct information also helps the city stay current with its as-built drawing library, says Warren. “We require builders and developers not just to come in with their plans for applications and permits, but to supply us with revised, as-built drawings they’ve created during actual installation,” he says.

“Sometimes they find, when they’re actually building their roads and such, that for one reason or another, they’ll have to move a manhole a few feet or something. We need to know about that. So once the project is finished, they’ll send over a disk or e-mail the CAD files. We convert those to shape files and add them to the GIS locator maps.”

One main usage of the integrated systems is in the division of the city into drainage basins to accommodate realistic management. “The city’s gravity sewer system is broken up into three separate drainage basins,” explains Warren. “Each of those is then divided into smaller areas, according to how it feeds back into the trunk line.” The 83 sub-basins are used to break down projects, such as smoke testing, into manageable bites.

“The first year we did that, we chose a smaller area as a pilot program, to see if it made sense,” Warren says. “That’s when we decided to use the trunk connection as the determiner of each sub-basin. It just makes sense, because that’s how we work on them.”

“We use ArcView GIS maps to locate all of our televised inspection reports, which are digitized and loaded directly onto our servers,” says Don Telford, district engineer at Salt Lake City Suburban Sanitation District No. 1.

“When we want to look at a section of line, we can identify and pull up the reports and the video. Whether it’s a bad section — cracks, breaks, deterioration or whatever there might be in the line, it’s definitely easier than it used to be.

“In the old days, we had to look at videotapes. First you had to look up the tape, load it, and then find the place on the tape where the thing you’re looking for was. I’d say this direct-to-server method saves us up to 80 percent of the time we had to spend doing the same thing, especially when you’re doing cleaning work.”

For new installations, “It helps us locate where our other lines are, so we know where to tie in the new one. We also use it to schedule jobs. With accurate information now at our fingertips, we can have a very good idea of how long a project will take.”

All Salt Lake City’s utilities share the same information systems. Before the city began sharing, crews often went in blind, not knowing whether they might hit another utility’s line. Running into that kind of surprise could add countless hours to a job. “It’s much faster now,” Telford says, “and we can work with more confidence.”

The City of Northport, Alaska, uses an integrated GPS/GIS system from Bentley Systems Inc. in much the same way, with the exception of asset mapping. “We need to do that,” admits wastewater plant operator Stuart Malone. “We work mainly from hard-copy mainline maps from 1980. A lot of information about newer parts is simply in the heads of our maintenance and repair crews.

“We get as-built drawings from all new subdivision developers, but to update the mainline map to digital, we’re waiting for CMOM to mandate mapping, so we create the system to be compliant from the start.”

Northport uses Bentley MicroStation, Redline and View components inside the software’s Passport collaboration structure. This allows all computer workstations read/write access to the digital data across the board. That means departments can work together to assess maintenance, manage maintenance schedules, compare planned and actual construction, develop intelligent design and procurement strategies, and analyze construction schedules.

“We’ve contracted engineers to determine exactly what needs we’ll have for the final mapping software, so we can choose a package that will serve us long-term,” says Malone.