Abstract:
Continued proliferation of utilities along highway corridors is affecting the ability of transportation agencies to deliver and manage transportation facilities effectively. From a data-management perspective, two specific issues are of interest to transportation agencies: data needs, data compatibility, and coordination with utility companies; and platform and procedures to support a utility data management system that properly addresses the needs of the transportation agency. Described is the architecture of a prototype platform for the management of utility data that takes into consideration utility data characteristics and roadway network characteristics. The platform uses the Global Positioning System (GPS), the geographic information system (GIS), and Internet technologies. The model includes a GPS/GIS-based prototype to represent utility facilities located within a highway right-of-way and associated attribute data such as ownership, purpose, size, type, and shared and multiple uses. The model also includes a prototype Internet-based data entry procedure to facilitate the capture of utility data from a variety of utility entities.
