APWA Infolink Pilot Sets Sights on Becoming Nation Wide Information Hub

The Purpose of APWA Infolink
Building and construction professionals are constantly faced with the daunting task of wading through a great amount of regulatory prerequisites. Prior to beginning any construction task, contractors, engineers, architects and other professionals must be knowledgeable of what specific forms, regulations, specifications, licenses, statutes, ordinances or codes they will need to comply with. This entire process begins by contacting the various Information Providers (1P) - federal, state, county or city agencies that maybe effected by work done in their jurisdiction. Additionally, contact must be made to various “call before you dig” organizations who will identify specific utilities in the area. The entire rocess creates a flow of information and communication that many times results in inefficient use of time and resources, loss of required information such as forms or documents and a mismanaged approach and mentality to customer service.

The APWA Internet application provides a funnel for a variety of different types of information, specifically designed to meet the needs of the planning, design and construction community. The application is navigated either by accessing links in drop-down or pick-list boxes or by drilling-down through an interactive map interface. Information is captured, managed and presented in such a way as to allow for an incredible amount of control and organization over what is communicated in the form of documents, forms, maps, etc., to this community of users. The control is maintained by each individual 1P, each being required to maintain their own specific data about their organization on-line. The organization of the information on site is maintained by following a template-driven approach to presenting information to end-users.

The Beginning of APWA Infolink
The project began as a way to meet the information sharing needs between design professionals and local agencies in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The initial concept was to provide a directory of utility company representatives that could be contacted by those needing information with regard to utility locations, right-of-way, easements, design criteria, shut-off, relocations, construction, etc. The constant changing nature of this information though, quickly dispelled this as a viable option. Focus quickly changed to the use of a community bulletin board. Although this would provide digital access to information, technology requirements made this a limited option. The next phase was to provide information via a “fax-back” setup. Potential IPs would be required to send in various documents to a central clearinghouse for processing. The information would be coded and entered into a system that would provide “touch-tone” access to desired documents. But this again had limiting potential and was a “document processing” nightmare.