Introductions - American Public Works Association · – Tom Struve, Superintendent of Streets, Central Services and Fleets • City of Eagan, MN • • Ranked Nationally as one

Next Generation AVL Technology

• Introduction• Where Public Works profession is at now • Where Public Works profession needs to be

• Examples of technology in operations• City of Bloomington, MN – Charlie Wild• City of Eagan, MN – Tom Struve

• Where the Public Works profession will be

Introductions

• Introductions– Charlie Wild, Analyst

• City of Bloomington, MN• www.ci.bloomington.mn.us• Home of the Mall of America

Introductions

• Introductions– Tom Struve, Superintendent of Streets, Central

Services and Fleets• City of Eagan, MN• www.ci.eagan.mn.us• Ranked Nationally as one of the best places to live

Introductions

• Introductions– Darwin Dahlgren, CEO of

• Thomtech (www.TTDI.com)• GoodPointe (www.goodpointe.com)• Zoom (www.zoominfosystems.com)• Lambda Tech (www.lambdatech.com)• Dahlgren (www.dahlgrenllc.com)

Where we are at now• Public Work Profession is Providing Responsive Service to the Public!

• The Public Works profession has always prided itself on (and delivered) responsive services.

• Public Works profession provides:• a well run and efficient transportation system, • quick clearing of snow on the roads,• delivery of clean water to the home, • trash removal, • right of way maintenance, • getting life back together after the perfect storm, and• many more tasks.

Where we are at now

• Unfortunately, We live in a “what have you done for me lately” world.

• Advance of technology• Instant news and information

• Changing meaning of “responsive service.”

• Goal to reduce emissions by 50% by 2025.

Where we are at now

• The information age has created;• elected officials,• citizens,• vendors, and • news agencies

• that are able to compare and contrast services received in both the private and public sectors at the speed of light (better know as the Internet).

Where we are at now

• Our elected representatives are demanding • detailed information on services performed,• play by play information during the event

•(snow or flooding or your unique disaster), • quick assessments of, the prep for, amount of damage after, and remediation plan and schedule to get things back to normal,

• in the time it takes for a Google search.

Where we need to be

• Question - How do public works professionals efficiently and cost effectively provide this:

• real time information, and• improved Situational Awareness (SA).

• Answer – Take advantage of these same technology advances.

• Fortunately, Moore’s law is on our side.

Where we need to be• The same technology that is creating arm chair quarterbacks• is available to the Public Works professional and

• Internet• Mobile communication• GPS,• Google Earth,• Digital imaging

• Not only are the prices more affordable but the cost can be shared as well.

Where we need to be

• Public Work Directors and managers and their practice leaders all have something in common.

• Overlapping area of concern shared by• almost every public works sector and

• Some type of pooling of resources within the agency or (between agencies) should be possible.

Where we need to be• Each Agency department is responsible for at least one;

• service, • resource, or • infrastructure system,

• within the agency boundary.

• Public works, engineering, planning, police, fire, assessor, etc., all need some piece of information about the;

• right of way,• parcel database,• house addresses,• vehicle fleet, • staff, etc.

Where we need to be• Any technology, organizational or procedural methods needed to collect this information or real-time situational awareness may be shared. •If these;

• technological, • organizational or • procedural • changes are properly leveraged

• Then; • real-time situational awareness and • recurring returns on investment • can be achieved at a fraction of the usual cost

Where we need to be• The actual cost share that each department or service area wouldbe allocated may depend on the;

• day to day operational needs • semi regular operational needs and/or • once in a (hopefully) great while emergency need of each department.

Where we need to be• One technology that could be used to provide this real-time situational awareness data which is becoming more and more affordable is Automated Vehicle Location (AVL).

•AVL systems• are being implemented at a number of agencies• to help improve real-time fleet, tracking, analysis and decision making.

Where we need to be

• AVL systems installed on vehicles for tracking.

• Typical AVL systems provide up to the minute data on the vehicle location and route• collected with or without the driver’s knowledge or action.

Where we need to be

Where we should be looking to go

• AVL systems combined with operator input devices or attached toadditional sensors, can be used to send information about;

• the vehicle status,• the work the vehicle is performing, and • surrounding vehicle environment.


•City of Bloomington, MN Example


• City of Eagan, MN Example

� A Little About Eagan…

� Management Systems Used/ Assets Managed

� How Decision Makers Use the Information

� Technical Challenges to this Point

� Future…

Eagan’s Experience

Where is Eagan?

36 Square Miles, Population 69,000, 19,466 Utility Accts.

Public Works Department 52 FTE (Engineering, Central Services, Streets, Utilities, and Fleet)

Background

Explosive growth during 80’sMinnesota River Crossings

Cedar Avenue Freeway Bridge

Interstate 494 Bridge

Interstate 35E

Population 1977 2008

17,000 69,000

Street Miles - 92 235.76

Lane Miles - 243 678.32

Cul de sacs - 110 646

Trails/sidewalks 12 128.84

Eagan Incorporated- Village 1972- City 1974

1978 - First City Engineer/ Public Works Director

Background

1970

2008

Eagan’s Asset Management Systems

• Under the Maintenance Umbrella …

– Fleet Management• “Fleet Focus” Software

(“Maximus”) –88’-89’• Mobile Units -204• Misc. Units -177• 2007 Mileage -1,536,186 • Central Garage

(Not Motor Pool) – Data Used For:

• PM, Capital Planning, Efficiency Evaluation, Staffing

– Technical Challenges: • Interfacing with

Finance/Fuel/Parts

SCAN VCI


• Under the Maintenance (Fleet) Umbrella …– Technical Challenges (cont.)

• Interfacing with software and software updates

– Old Systems Interfaced with Portable Scanners

» Software Behind -Targeting Vendors for Use with out of Warranty Units

– Need Computerized “Hook ups” (Laptops) Because Late Model Vehicles Require Fresh/most Recent Software Updates

SCAN VCI



– Forestry• Blvd Tree Inventory

(17,560) “Tree Keeper”– Mid 90’s- GPS’s all Blvd

Trees over 3 yrs– Species, Diameter,

Condition, Location• Overlaid to Arc View Maps• Parks Tree Inventory-

(7000+) Parks Trees 1640 Landscape Beds



– Forestry (cont.)– Data Used For:

• CIP, Staffing, Contractual Maintenance

Examination of LiabilityExposure

– Technical Challenges: • Original GPS Points Collected-

Then Digitized to Maps • How to achieve quality

services• Make Workable Work Orders?

Eagan’s Asset Management Systems• Across the City…

– Little Umbrella Asset Data-

• Technical Challenges:– Differing Priorities,

Multiple Systems– Interfacing with One

Another– Getting Good Data

– Study Group Continues Evaluating Possibilities –

• Contractual Oversight• Data Collection Methods• New Technology

City of Eagan AVL Technology

• The initial goal of AVL implementation was to improve awareness of fleets.

AVL Technology

• Use AVL to collect more real-time fleet data• Initial thought was primarily location data

City of Eagan AVL System

• After location data, Eagan then set out to have AVL provide multiple levels of return on an AVL initial and monthly investment.

• Not only providing tracking (Eagan’s primary goal) but added technology to provide secondary returns through 1. better coordinate work for multiple departments 2. leveraging existing resources

1. combining two or more previously separately performed tasks

3. reducing staff and vehicle travel time within and around the City (1.5 million miles travels)

4. accomplishing tasks more efficiently


• One of the ways to accomplish this was operator input at the Vehicle


• Interchangeable buttons can be used to locate and assign any number of items for maintenance work.

• debris• trimming• potholes• broken manhole• downed sign• faulted sidewalks• Etc.


• Push buttons used to identify and locate problem areas.


• Push buttons used to identify and locate problem areas.


• Data transferred to map.


• To create work plans and schedules.


• To create work plans and schedules.


• City wide and local plans

Asset Management-Looking Ahead…

Sensor Technology Application…


Monitoring snow plows, street sweepers in real-time,

…when it was moving, …when it was plowing or sweeping


The status of the entire fleet…

(sent via cellular or wirelessly)…

easily viewed …

(from the internet).

Viewing limited to those with specific authorizations.


Real-time data and data mining generating statistics for fleet optimization, training, management and six-sigma.

• Public works professionals, elected officials and citizens may be able to use the internet themselves to see:

• snow routes plowed, being plowed, to be plowed in 10, 20 or 90….. minutes,

• play by play street sweeper activity of swept roads and parkingrestrictions lifted

• play by play garbage truck activity including alerts that the garbage truck is 5 minutes away

• school bus route, location and estimated time to desired bus stop

• possible traffic back up locations as reported from agency vehicles, and so on



• “Probe” centric systems can significantly increase AVL effectiveness.

• The vehicle becomes a probe utilized as a “data-mailman”picking up and dropping off appropriate information to the responsible decision makers.

• to dispatchers/supervisors/managers/facilitators/citizens

• AVL systems combined with aftermarket and OEM sensor systems can be used to send some of this information;

• transparent to the vehicle operator.

• That same vehicle driving around the cities of Bloomington or Eagan could also be collecting, analyzing and disseminating data using their own built in (OEM) sensors:

• pavement traction on dry or wet or frozen roads via the OEM traction control systems and/or anti-lock brake sensors• roadway roughness via OEM load leveling systems; • weather conditions via OEM wiper speeds or temperature sensors

• There are around 200 OEM sensors in vehicles today (and growing)



• Installation of GPS with vehicle data bus traffic.


• AVL combined with OEM sensor data


>Load Leveling event (148.293,85.234) 05:23:12

Medium Severity Road Fault

>>Load Leveling Event (148.297,85.234) 06:17:09

High Severity Road Fault Suspected

>20% Abnormal Traffic Speed Event(148.297,85.234) 06:23:49

>40% Abnormal Traffic Speed Event(148.297,85.234) 06:25:49

• All this probe data can be collected: • while the vehicles are out on their normal routes, and • without any impact on the vehicle operators.

• Other departments can join the public works probe vehicle team • Vehicles such as police patrols, assessors, meter reader automatically pick up the presence of potholes, slippery roads, or rough roads via there on-board OEM sensors.

• These team members could be paid a small fee sense they are there anyway.

• Or, better yet, barter their services.


•This information could be sent to the;• vehicle operator (as the OEM sensors do now)• and/or• the command center



• Real-time updates to infrastructure performance and modeling.

• The detected pothole location and the affect the pothole had on the police cruiser …..(police cruiser slowed down on a main road creating a congestion or safety problem)

……could be sent via a automated phone call, text message, or email to the responsible road supervisor or superintendent.

• Depending on the importance of the roadway where the pothole occurred the pothole repair could be scheduled and repaired under the established

• one hour • 8 hour• 24 hour or• 72 hour repair plan.


• Virtual Imaging systems and AVL• Combining GPS based imaging systems with AVL further adds to improved situational awareness and actionable information


• One example, Google earth is providing quick access to qualitative spatially positioned images of almost every spot in the world

• Google can be improved for your agency• augmented with terrestrial image and position data to improve quantitative data collection capabilities

• at the user’s desk• rather than a trip (and associated cost) to the site • reducing the carbon foot print




• With this data public works leader can virtually:• visit every site within the right of way without leaving their desks• virtually be there with field their staff on;

• every day service calls, • semi regular snow events, and • the not so often, but could happen anytime, natural disasters and other emergencies.


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• Anything in the image can be located, inspected, measured and mapped with the click of a mouse.


• Any feature seen in image can be located, measured and assessed.

GPSVision integration with Google Maps

• How tall is the building at 250 E Main Street?

• How many lamps at the traffic signal at 250 E Main Street? What size are they?


• GPS based image data could reduce staff inspection time and mayfurther reduce vehicle travel time • Improved locations of tree trimming and defining what should betrimmed on the image


• Every department can use GPS based images to extract their data.• Data and the cost can be shared between each department.


• GPS based terrestrial image data can provide the means for almost every department to extract the data that they need from one vehicle pass of the roadway versus multiple passes.



• Recent advances in• data storage• processing power• wireless technologies• pervasive mobile GPS based digital imaging• allow all AVL initiated events to be tagged with/to video, photo, and/or audio at low cost depending on the bandwidth and coverage.

What the future holds

Strip Mapping – Entire Pavement & ROW

What the future holds Common Operating Picture

• You began by coming to this session.

• Becoming aware of this technology.

• Now begin to look for ways that this technology could help your agency leverage;

• complementary resources,• assets or• procedures• to produce this real-time situational awareness capability.

How to get started

The steps in the process to efficiently and cost effectively acquire, analyze and gain this needed situational awareness information are to:

1. Think about how your resources go about their normal operations.2. Define ways to passively maximize the output and/or reduce

redundancy from all your resources. 3. Define the common information needed for each department,4. Assess what current resources, assets and/or procedures could

provide this information.5. Determine what if any enhancements to these resources, assets

and or procedures are needed to add more informational value.

How to get started

The steps in the process to efficiently and cost effectively acquire, analyze and gain this needed situational awareness information are to:

6. Identify what other available technology exists outside the agency to add to the collection, evaluation and processing of this information.

7. Define how this enhanced or potential new technology would benefit each department within the agency.

8. Establish an interdepartmental agreement (written or verbal) as to how the support functions and costs of these mutually beneficialresources, assets and/or systems or practices would allocated toeach department.

How to get started

• Based on the overlap of these available resources many agency department leaders may be able to share the fixed cost of AVL and GPS based imaging technology and the data updates with little increase in budget.

How to get started

Thank You!

Tom Struve City of [email protected]

Charlie WIldCity of [email protected]

Darwin Dahlgren [email protected]

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Bloomington’s GPS System

Vehicle Based GPS Data Collection after a Major Storm

Public Works: Administration, Engineering, Maintenance, and Utilities

GPS Introduction

• Previewed MnDOT project• Used ThomTech for pilot project• Three plow trucks with plow/sander

sensors• One pickup with two button locator

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History of Storms

• 1998 storm caused wide spread damage

• City-wide cleanup of storm debris• Creation of cleanup policy


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First Major Storm

• Rolls through area August 11, 2007• Need to survey damage• Emergency meeting• City-wide emergency declared• City pickup of all boulevard storm debris• Private property storm debris brought to

curb or drop zone


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Second Storm

• Strikes August 28, 2007• City forced to re-start cleanup efforts


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Handheld GPS Data Collection

• Bulky and cumbersome• Takes time to setup project• More difficult to extract data• Issues with satellite lock• Unlimited collection objects


Vehicles Based GPS Data Collection

• Quick to deploy• Easy to use• Indicators for buttons defined online• Zero learning curve for end-user• Limited to two collection objects per

user

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GPS Receiver/Input


Post Processing Data

• Use ThomTech online map• Download data• Convert latitude/longitude to local

coordinates• Import location data into existing

mapping

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Screen shot of lat/lon


GPS Data Collection

• Import into existing mapping• Produce paper maps for field crews• Produce electronic maps for website

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GPS Used to Locate

• Downed boulevard trees• Debris piles for cleanup crews• Boulevard stumps for removal• Boulevard stumps for grinding• Out/malfunctioning street lamps


GPS Benefits

• Windshield survey of damage necessary for decision making

• Incorporates GPS locating of damage while surveying combines two tasks

• Saves multiple trips, money, gas, time, manpower

• Reduces duplication of efforts, paper copies

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GPS Benefits

• Brings data back to office quickly and efficiently

• Access to live data for improved response time

• Controls flow of mapping data• Post processing for detailed analysis in

GIS, mapping programs


GPS Benefits

• Data to decision makers in timely fashion

• Gives office a feel for what’s happening in the field

• Creates routes based on hardest hit areas

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Statistics

• 14,218 regular and OT hours• Over 30,000 gallons diesel used - 42%

more than average for same period• Approximately $850,000 spent on storm

cleanup


Statistics

• 75,000 miles (about three times around the world)

• 7,800 truck loads• 42.8 miles, truck loads lined up end-to-

end

Documents

Introductions - American Public Works Association · – Tom Struve, Superintendent of Streets, Central Services and Fleets • City of Eagan, MN • • Ranked Nationally as one