Yuma county, AZ. Public Works Department Automated Asset Management System
IntroductionJames G. Donahue Donahue Consultants 2755 South Mesa Avenue, Yuma, AZ 85364 The Yuma County Department of Public Works has embarked upon the information super highway by bringing computer-based technology into the County Asset Maintenance Management System. The former manual system was cumbersome and needed modernization in order to optimize expenditures for County asset maintenance. A study was performed and a “Pilot Project” was completed in 1998, which demonstrated that an off-the-shelf computer-based software package, utilized to establish a database of the current condition of all public works physical assets, will “in fact” save tax dollars over the old manual system at a Cost/Benefit ratio of at least 3:1. Yuma County DPW Statistical Items 1500 miles of gravel or dirt roads 500 Miles of paved highway Yearly Maintenance Includes 50 miles of Chip Sealing 10 Miles of Slurry Sealing and 10 Miles of Plastic Sealing 300 Miles of Striping and Hole Patching Maintains 12,000 Signs and 3,000 Bridges and Canal Crossings, all with six Clerks, two Administrators, four Technicians, 4 Foreman, and 80 Maintenance personnel. Project Definition Land Base Design: In setting up specifications for the accomplishment of the “Pilot” Study, both the City and County of Yuma Mapping/GIS Units were contacted to make sure that “Land Base” integration would be accomplished as a “by product” when the entire AMS Project was completed. This integration is needed to make sure that all geographic-based information generated by one agency can be utilized by others without rigorous and time-consuming transformations between unlike systems. The land Base being used by both the City and County Mapping Units is based on the United States Public Land Survey System of Sections, Townships, and Ranges from the Initial Point on the GILA MERIDIAN AND BASELINE, which governs land descriptions in Yuma County. The PLSS is digitally integrated to the Arizona State Plane Coordinate System (NAD 1927). This coordinate system has been used due to the fact that most cadastral data now available, without doing new control surveys over the entire County, was identified earlier by other agencies of government for mapping purposes. It is highly recommended that this project be fully integrated with the ASPCS/NAD’83 when it is adequately densified on the ground by Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Public Land Survey Identification: In order to utilize the PLSS, the ASPCS, and the Asset software modules (ASM) requirements, all at the same time, a digital system of numbering is being utilized to identify Section and Quarter Section corners of the PLSS that will tie directly to the ASM requirements for line segmentation and identification. The known coordinates of the ASPCS/NAD’27 are input within the ASM line segments, with node identification input fields. This is a beneficial aid in the identification of cadastral parcels on the current Assessment Rolls and located along any given road or highway. Also, current GIS software can easily be implemented within the AMS for specific spatial analytical tasks related to geography. Asset Management Modules Pavement Management Module: The Pavement Management Module provides a systematic, consistent method for determining maintenance needs, priorities and the optimal time of repair. Early detection and repair of a roadway distress are extremely important in reducing long-term maintenance costs. Most pavements exhibit a deterioration rate that accelerates as they reach advanced age. When examining deterioration curves, it becomes clear that significant maintenance costs can be saved if remedial action is undertaken prior to a roadway reaching the steep decline in condition. The Pavement Management Module is used to track the life cycle of road segments in the network and to highlight segments in need of attention. In Network-Level--In Network-Level management, the entire roadway network is considered for budgeting, planning, scheduling, and selection of maintenance projects. Sufficiency Inspections are periodically conducted for all segments in a network. These inspections are fast and easy observations of condition, geometry, safety, ride, etc. Ideally, inspections should occur before the segment begins the sharp decline in condition and at a point where timely maintenance can still be scheduled. The Critical Pavement Condition Rating (PCR) value can be used to evaluate the need for preventive and major maintenance. The critical PCR value occurs at the point where the condition of a segment begins to deteriorate at an accelerating rate. Typically, the maintenance costs increase dramatically once a segment reaches this point. It is advantageous to begin maintenance efforts before the Critical PCR is reached. Today, upper management is more demanding of management techniques that consider the needs of the entire network. With money in short supply, it is imperative that the greatest benefits are achieved from each dollar expended. Network-Level analysis complements Project-Level analysis to arrive at the required conclusions. Deterioration : The Deterioration Matrixes within the AMS allows you to define a Deterioration Curve that is associated with each Pavement Class. Once defined, these Deterioration Curves can be referenced elsewhere in the PMS application. You may create one Deterioration Curve for each Pavement Class. A Deterioration Curve is a model of how the condition of segments that belong to a Pavement Class will deteriorate over time (on the average). With a Deterioration Curve defined for a Pavement Class, individual road segments can be compared to the curve to determine performance/ life expectancy. The Deterioration Curves are most accurate when they are developed from local historical data. Pavement Analysis Module: Assists in creating multiple CIP planning models and “what if” type scenarios and Generates multi-year budgets and maintenance profiles. Also assists in the preparation of MR&R decision trees, calculating cost vs. Benefit scenarios, predicting performance of individual assets, and aids in projecting funding to achieve overall agency goals. Safety Signage and Markings: Is a complete inventory of signs, mountings and pavement markings. It yields a complete GPS/GIS location and identification for spatial analysis and mapping of individual assets. It supplies a complete history log of events with attached images and videos. It also supplies queries, reports, and cost of materials analyzes along with access to predefined sign and marking libraries. Bridge and Culvert Module: It provides a complete bridge and culvert inventory along with inspection records by category. It provides a complete structure history with database rollback queries and reports. Also, provides full English and Metric support, while maintaining a complete structure inventory and appraisal information (si&a). It also supplies complete support for FHWA, NBI and PONTIS data. Asset Manager Module: It is the “Workhorse” of all of the AMS for it serves as a clearing house for all managed assets. Records labor, equipment and material costs. It relates work activities to specific work orders. It projects and tracks maintenance schedules. It furnishes customized queries and reports while tracking inventory levels. It also tracks public complaints and generates work requests/orders. It may contain standard operating procedures (Cook Book) for most all types of maintenance work. This is truly the “work horse” of the system. New Techniques and Developments Voice Activated Data Collection: It provides vocabulary building capabilities and GPS on the fly locations. Captured data downloads data directly into predefined data bases with no more manual data input except for QA/QC. This technology speeds up the data collection and data processing by about 3x. Voice Recognition Technology 101: It interprets spoken words and converts it to text while associating an asset or other item with their exact physical location via GPS/GIS. It stores data in an RDBMS using key fields to relate one record with another. One simply tells the laptop field computer what you see and it will record the field data as defined in the vocabulary dictionary. In the office one downloads the data to your office computer and performs QA/QC to check the accuracy of data being exported to the proper asset management module. Advantages of Desktop Asset Management
When undertaking an Asset Management project like this, be aware that several months research and study must be done before buying into any particular software. Unless your agency is a very large agency, an off-the-shelf software package will probably yield the best results for the time and money spent. Also, one should “Bench Mark” test the top 3 packages identified to see which one will perform the best in your specific environment. We did not do this and we suffered the consequences of a lot of down time to fix problems we didn’t know we were going to have. By doing a “Pilot Project” one can better make a more intelligent judgment on the best package to use. Once the decision is made to buy a specific package, a decision as to how to best implement the system is a major item to consider. We at Yuma County did this one module at a time because of a lack of in-house resources to do anything else. However, if the money and the physical resources are available, and can be utilized, it is strongly suggested that the most needed modules be implemented at the same time to save duplicating trips into the field to gather data for one module without getting everything needed for several modules. Inspecting Roads, Bridges, Culverts, and Traffic signs can be done at the same time, on the same segment of highway, using two technicians. By implementing only one module at a time, both time and effort is duplicated. Thirdly, it has been found that a stand alone Asset Management Server is the best solution to avoiding down time. Having data base sets out on a large Network, tends to slow done production and often corrupts certain types of data. This means daily backup is mandatory and become very time consuming to reset back to a certain date and time. Lastly, make sure your vendor offers great technical support. The 1-800 phone number does not usually give you the timely response needed to identify specific remedies to problems that can arise without warning at times. Using Internet (EMail) messaging can be faster when attached digital files can be immediately examined by technical support personnel. Even a faxed document showing the problem you are having is better than trying to explain everything over the phone. Sometimes a combination of all three methods is required to solve problems as quickly as possible. Conclusion One thing is clear to all who manage Public Works Assets--maintenance funds are becoming increasingly difficult to come by. As a result, improved methods for determining maintenance needs and priorities are required. It is no longer acceptable to focus on short-term repair techniques. Greater emphasis must be placed on selection of remedies that provide the greatest long-term benefits. Today, upper management is more demanding of management techniques that consider the needs of the entire set of Assets. With money in short supply, it is imperative that the greatest benefits are achieved from each dollar expended. Network-Level analysis complements Project-Level analysis to arrive at the required conclusions. | ||
| © GISdevelopment.net. All rights reserved. |