On the Right Road

By Jay Stinson, Intergraph Corporation

Intergraph’s geospatially enabled transportation solutions give you a clear view of your entire highway network, so you can improve safety and protect your infrastructure.

Your transportation agency has the ultimate responsibility of making sure people and products travel safely and efficiently along your highway system. That task does not come without challenges each and every day. To keep traffic flowing safely along our nation's highways, transportation agencies require a comprehensive view of roadway network data. Your agency needs to track, analyze, and review accurate infrastructure data, regardless of its source. A clear picture of your network supports better decisions, saves time and money, and most importantly, promotes safety, all the while protecting roadway infrastructure investments.

Responding to your needs

As geospatial technology plays an increasing role in managing our nation's highway infrastructure, Intergraph® designed its geospatial transportation solutions to address the issues of data integration and many other business problems facing the transportation industry. Our approach of focusing on data integration while delivering modular applications for viewing, managing, and reporting roadway infrastructure data provides a cost-effective technology solution for the transportation industry. We deliver powerful and flexible applications that respond to specific business problems, such as multilevel linear referencing for enterprise data analysis, automated routing for oversized and overweight vehicles, and information-sharing via the Web. Intergraph's Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) application gives your agency the ability to collaborate and distribute geospatially related data regardless of the desktop geographic information system (GIS) used. Transportation agencies around the world rely on Intergraph technology to maintain an accurate representation of their assets. Below are some examples of how Intergraph solutions keep our highways moving.

Managing ever-changing data with MLRS

The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) faced the challenge of integrating constantly changing data from many sources. NDOT wanted to build and maintain a new linear referencing system (LRS) to seamlessly manage and analyze all of its roadway information, including state and county data, regardless of the source or referencing method. Using Intergraph's Multilevel Linear Referencing System (MLRS), NDOT built and maintains its MLRS data model and roadway data to streamline the LRS maintenance process. The MLRS eliminates the need for multiple data models, manual data conflation, and manages data translation between linear referencing methods on the fly. NDOT uses our MLRS as a location reference tool to manage its underlying network. In addition, NDOT can use MLRS to address reporting requirements of SAFETLU and other agencies in a more efficient and timely manner. The new system manages migrated linear data for every street, county, road, and highway in Nevada.

"Through Nevada DOT's close relationship with Intergraph, we've been able to address Nevada's highway safety concerns in a cost-effective manner, while fulfilling our federal reporting requirements," said Grahame Ross of the Nevada Department of Transportation. "Through our strong relationship with Intergraph, we will continue to build on our safety management system, ultimately saving lives and decreasing costs for taxpayers."

Determining safe routes

Your transportation agency must also determine safe routes for oversized and overweight (OS/OW) vehicles traveling through your jurisdiction. For example, if an oversized vehicle carrying components of a windmill is too large for a particular bridge in your area, your agency must re-route it. It may take a Department of Transportation permitting agent many hours to research the potential roadway hazards for an OS/OW vehicle, which can result in significant delays for permit issuance. Intergraph's OS/OW Vehicle Routing application integrates information pertaining to bridges, construction projects, turn movements, temporary restriction such as lane closure, or other roadway infrastructure data with the network to safely and accurately route vehicles through the system. Our automated approach focuses on potential problems and hazards that would prevent safe passage of the vehicle. You can capture vehicle and load information during the permit request, compare it to network route restrictions, and determine if a safe route is possible for the vehicle. The solution can also provide support to structural engineers and permit agents for making special notes about the route if needed. Once a safe route is determined, the solution provides detailed driving directions and map output for the permit department to ensure the carrier fully understands the route being permitted.

Easy access to information

In addition to analyzing data to improve decisions, transportation agencies often need to share geospatial information with other agencies, other departments, and the public. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), recognized as one of the top highway systems in the United States, wanted to implement a Web-based application to ensure all users had access to up-to-date roadway information. TDOT has a long and successful working relationship with Intergraph. From the early days of GIS, TDOT has partnered with Intergraph to manage and publish a wide range of map data.

TDOT implemented a geospatial web portal using Intergraph's technology, and now potentially 4,000 employees, federal, state, and local government agencies, and TDOT contractors have easy access to the roadway information. The Web portal provides automatic updates to all users and eliminates duplicate data entry, all the while providing a single source of truth. The new application enables users to quickly form queries, with results displayed in both report and map formats.

The new system allows users to query, report, and map information on more than 92,000 miles of roads in Tennessee. Sherry Hankins, GIS Technician Manager of the GIS Mapping and Facilities Data Office, says that TDOT knows what to expect when working with Intergraph. "Intergraph's project methodology has proven to provide quality results without surprises or problems," Hankins said. "Intergraph understands transportation data and how it is used and reported by transportation professionals."

Keeping you on the right road

Our transportation solutions can provide you with the tools necessary for responding to these and other business requirements, regardless of your existing GIS or database technologies in use today. Intergraph solutions help hundreds of state, provincial, and national governments solve their asset visualization, management, and reporting problems. We are dedicated to helping your agency keep people and products moving safely and efficiently.

Jay Stinson is the Vice President and General Manager of Intergraph's utilities and communications and local government and transportation divisions, responsible for driving the application of Intergraph's comprehensive suite of geospatial solutions to these specific markets.