ND Department of TransportationGIS Tools and Applications

ND GIS Users ConferenceOctober 2005

Brian BieberProgrammer/Analyst IIIInformation Technology DivisionNorth Dakota Department of Transportation

Overview• Background• DOT Software• Tools - ArcMap

– RIMS Extension– DOT Utilities

• Focused Applications – ArcIMS and Visual Basic– Traffic Information Map– Road Conditions Map– Road Construction Map– Design Cover Sheet – Right-of-Way Plats

How did I get into GIS??• No one else in IT wanted the job• Learned OTJ• Started from the programming side• Patient Managers• Patient Users• Helpful Colleagues with a LOT of knowledge

– Rod Bassler (Master Yoda) - SWC– Gerald Kautzman – NDDOT– GISTC Members

DOT Software• ArcMap 9.0 - 104 Installations

• 7 Concurrent ArcInfo • 13 Concurrent ArcView

• ArcView 3.3 - 46 Installations • Windows 2000 Server

– ArcSDE 9.0– SQL Server 2000– ArcIMS 9.0– IIS 5.0 - Tomcat Jakarta

• Development Languages– VBA– VB 6.0– VB.Net– ASP

What’s the POINT?

Using small applications to integrate

GIS into everyday workflows

ArcMap Tools• DOT Utilities Tool• Roadway Inventory Management System

(RIMS) Tool

DOT Utilities Tool - ArcMap• “Zoom To” common features

– Longitude Latitude– XY– Section Township Range– Highway - Mile Point– City– County

• Add XY text to mouse click

DOT Utilities – Built In Help

Zoom To - Section

Zoom To Highway – Reference Point

Zoom To - Cities

DOT Utilities – XY Callout

RIMS Tool - ArcMap• Adds commonly used spatial data sets

– Route Events – XY Events

• Symbolizes each category of features• Back End Info

– Read only tables on SDE– Data transferred from DB2, Oracle, and Access – One stop for table data

RIMS Data• Highways

– By District– By Section

• Highway Components• Highway Projects• Billboards• Bridges• Centerline Pipes• Curves – Vertical• Curves - Horizontal

• Fences• Functional Class of Road• Guardrails• Inslope Ratio• Lights• Remarks• Right-of-Way• Rumble Strips• Signs• Speed Zones

Select either State-wide or District

Select event data

Add Signs for District 8 - Fargo

RIMS Signs for Roads and Ramps

Focused Applications• Traffic Information Map• Road Conditions Map• Construction Map• Design Cover Sheet• Right-of-Way Plats

Transportation Information Map

Transportation Information Map• Traffic counts by class of vehicle• Volume traffic counts• Turning movements• Breakpoint counts• Portable count locations• Automated traffic counter locations• Functional Classes

Transportation Information Map• Benefits

– 10-40 hits per day– 50% reduction in current count requests– 1-2 hours per day saved in researching counts– Internal requests reduced close to 0– Traffic information in one place

• Next Step– Move to external web site

Road Conditions Map

Detailed print out Web Cameras

Road Conditions Map Application• Access Application feeds ND Hub

– Downloads event table from legacy Road Report application– Downloads reference point table (contains route measures) from

DB2– Calculates from and to route measures for each event. If it can’t

find a reference point, it walks the reference point table 3 miles forward and backward to find a close reference point.

– Creates an event layer in memory and uploads it as a feature class to the Hub

• ArcMap feature classes draw considerably faster than route events

– Sends an ArcXML file to create a static maps– Sends link to ASP page to update the “Date” text file– Opens web page for user to verify everything uploaded correctly

Road Conditions Map• Benefits

– Errors eliminated - Maps exactly the same each upload

– Information is more timely– 5 minutes reduction in preparation time

• October 5th and 6th Hits– Interactive Map

• 5,450

– Static Maps• 654,665 (Please Note: Pages refresh every 60 seconds)

Road Construction Map

Road Construction Map Application• Access Application feeds ND Hub

– Downloads road construction event table from Construction Automated Records System (CARS)

– Creates an event layer in memory and uploads it as a feature class to the Hub

• ArcMap feature classes draw considerably faster than route events

– Sends an ArcXML file to ArcIMS. Parses the response to build an image map and map tip text files

– Uploads text files– Sends an ArcXML file to create a static maps– Sends link to ASP page to update the “Date” text file– Opens web page for user to verify everything uploaded correctly

Road Construction Map• Benefits

– 4 minutes versus 2 hours of preparation time– Maps are updated multiple times per day instead 3

times per week– Maps created dynamically with field data– Multiple maps can be created depending on the

density of road construction projects– Paper maps are no longer sent out

Design Cover Sheet

Scale Tool – Design Cover Sheet• Used to zoom to specified

scale.

Export Map – Design Cover Sheet

• Creates any of following files for download– PDF, JPEG, PNG8, TIFF, etc

• Files can be imported into other documents such as Microstation or Word

• Restricted Haul (county) roads is a layer in this application

Design Cover Sheets• Benefits

– 5 minutes versus 30 minutes of preparation time– County haul roads electronically available

• These used to be maintained with tape on paper maps

– Maps are more consistent– External web site – Available to contractors

Right-of-Way Plats

Plats available for that section

Scanned Right-of-Way Plats

Right-of-Way Plats• Benefits

– 4 hours saved per day per ROW designer– 2 hours per project for Flight planner– Scanned plats are imported into Microstation– Anyone within the DOT can view them without

contacting ROW– Sending scanned plats to consultants

• Next Step– Move to external web site

Questions ?

Contact Information

Brian Bieber

ND Department of Transportation

Information Technology Division

701-328-2649

bbieber@state.nd.us