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Dig once, do zero harm
01 May, 2009
Press Release: Local Government magazine

New software from Trifecta Global Infrastructure Solutions solves these age old problems by creating a national browser-based portal for efficient implementation of the new National Code of Practice for Utilities’ Access to the Transport Corridors. For as long as we all can remember, whenever there has been roading construction work to be undertaken, for a contractor or a utility it has meant multiple trips to the local council offices, piles of paperwork to be completed, drawings to be submitted, added to, modified, and finally resubmitted.

Sometimes there have been mysterious gaps of time in the whole process, which have only been resolved after repeated phone calls or visits. And, as a contractor or utility, if you work with multiple councils, you have had to deal with the added nightmare that each of your councils has probably had different paperwork and processes to deal with and remember.

From the council perspective, filing cabinets of paper have steadily expanded, staff time has been occupied by searching for misplaced paperwork and trying to stay on top of the process, and still roads sometimes have resulted in being dug up multiple times over the course of several months with no one being able to realise it in advance. In addition there are the trenches that get filled in improperly with council unable to identify works that are within the warranty period. Worst of all, there are the situations where drivers or workers have been needlessly put in harm’s way because of inadequate traffic safety.

Recognising all of this, the New Zealand Utilities Advisory Group was formed several years ago to attempt to bring best practice standardisation across the country. And now, after many years of hard work, with input from all parties around the table, as of March of this year, an implementation version of the National Code of Practice for Utilities’ Access to the Transport Corridors has been released. The preamble to the code states it best: “The code has been developed by the industry for the industry with the key objectives of developing a nationally consistent process, formalising current industry best practice, and minimising third party damage problems."

NZUAG recognised that this standardisation might open the way for a national portal to integrate local authority and utility asset information through geospatial means, and even expressed the hope that “The Code of Practice for Working in the Road and the Road Opening Notice procedures could also be integrated into this process.” Now, a local New Zealand company, Trifecta Global Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, has created that national portal.

Building on their work implemented last December for the Auckland Motorway Alliance, Trifecta has been working with Palmerston North City Council as a beta site for their new T3 product over the last several months.

T3 is designed to help council and state highway authorities implement the best practices contained within the national code, making them both achievable and cost effective. T3 combines a proprietary, browser based, very powerful and innovative mapping component along with the ability to see projects geospatially filtered using Gantt timelines. This module is designed to automate `the entire paperwork business process for CAR’s and TMPs online, including submission, review, and approval. T3 utilises intelligent scheduling, safe traffic management, KPI visibility, historical archiving, and warranty tracking all in one application.

In T3, each step of a desired process flow is represented by an icon across the top of the screen. Users can instantly see by the check marks where they are in the process, and clicking on the relevant icon takes them to the associated data forms required for that step. Project Status is automatically tracked for each set of forms, with both the RCA and the applicant receiving ongoing feedback via e-mails and alerts regarding where they currently are in the process. Compliance issues, such as credentialing, are automatically checked. RCAs are even alerted when warranties are approaching their expiration.

Once a submission is approved, the hard copy permits are automatically generated, which become available online for printing by the site contractor. The entire application and approval process is archived electronically for historical reference, including all associated e-mails and uploaded drawings.

In addition, T3 is designed to bring highly accurate visual information directly to the Engineer’s desktop. For example, T3 seamlessly integrates with Pictometry oblique aerial imagery, provided by Trifecta’s technology partner, AAM. Pictometry allows users to make measurements of lengths, areas, and even building heights, directly within the T3 display. By touching a point on the traffic map, the user instantly sees the linked GPS point in the photo layer that provides direct access to vital contextual information necessary for critical decisions. Alternatively, instead of the aerial view, Engineers can switch to an engineering grade, high resolution, 360-degree "DriveView" in T3, again provided in partnership with technology partner AAM. Engineers can select any point in a street map, which will then link them directly to the 360-degree "DriveView". Within the "DriveView" Engineers can zoom in, for example, to inspect pavement sections for cracking. The high resolution "DriveView" imagery is captured by a Trifecta/AAM vehicle with a custom six-lens video camera. Individual video frames are captured with spacings as small as 2m with a positional accuracy of less than 0.5m and GPS coordinates embedded in the imagery.

The T3 viewing engine also allows a wide assortment of asset data to be embedded as layers within the photos and the maps – construction data, traffic data, crash data, budget data, water reticulation data, etc. Trifecta even offers the ability to merge an RCA’s Forward Works programme from its optional Project Management Module into T3. These forward works projects can then be filtered and shown geospatially using Gantt timeline sliders in T3. For the first time, the chances of actually spotting violations of the “dig once” imperative have increased in your favour! Palmerston North has already spotted multiple unintended violations using this module’s functionality, yielding huge savings in increased asset life expectancy. For further information contact www.TrifectaGIS.com.

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