You win some, you lose some
The emphasis of Real-time Asset Mapping (RtAM) was data management, but fundamentally we were collecting and processing new survey data. A huge element involved field logistics.
It took the team four years to work through all of this. Have we changed conventional thinking? Yes and no.
- Our project was too disruptive to the status quo, so it was conducted using outside resources for the GINORMOUS project. In-house surveyors, CAD designers, and GIS analysts were incredibly frustrated to be cut out of the process.
- Construction improved, and project managers took note. Assets were built more closely to design plans. When they weren’t, surveys caught the errors before paving, making rework cheaper (and more likely) for all parties.
- Asset surveys cost dramatically less than expected. The first project installed 6,500 feet of water and drainage pipe and 120 structures. Surveys cost $45,000. The contractor’s first estimate was $350,000, so we agreed to time and materials. This helped us more discretely track costs per asset. The same contractor’s surveyor performed staking and asset surveys. Combining these activities improved efficiency and accuracy.
- GIS employees are using survey points to control the quality of existing and proposed data layers. It’s much less than we hoped for, but it’s a start.
- Record drawings delivered by consultant designers are improving dramatically in completeness and spatial accuracy. They loved using the asset survey data, which was much easier to understand than the engineer’s cryptic red line mark-ups. But record drawings are two-dimensional. We are working toward incorporating asset survey data into Autodesk’s AutoCAD Civil 3D alignment deliverables to create true as-builts and 3D renderings.
- Specifications we developed are being incorporated into the organization’s standard specifications for capital projects.
Seattle Public Utilities still has hundreds of archived record plans that depict assets poorly and incompletely but remain our only data source for what’s underground. Oh well, baby steps.
Karen Zollman is senior project surveyor for Seattle Public Utilities. E-mail kar en.zollman@seattle.gov.
