Success Story - Frederick County, Maryland Uses Mobile GIS For Roadway Asset Data Collection

Maryland's largest county, Frederick County , is growing its GIS database for its Division of Public Works (DPW) and use in roadway operations. The county's DPW maintains GIS layers that include roadway and engineering features. GIS is used to support the needs of various roadway operations within the county such as providing the Office of Highway Operations with annual snow route mapping and maintenance for the county roadways. Additionally, it is used for updates of road asset inventories, such as signs, and the location and tracking of repairs and inspections of roadway sink holes.

According to DPW's GIS manager Douglas Reedy, the division's long-term GIS goals include the development of an automated pavement and roadway data management system using ESRI's geodatabase and linear referencing technologies. To work toward accomplishing this goal, the DPW contracted eRoadInfo, Inc. last year to complete a pilot project covering one highway maintenance district. eRoadInfo performed roadway asset data collection using images captured along county roads.

eRoadInfo used its mobile GIS data collection system to complete this pilot project. This system's key components include global positioning systems, digital cameras, a distance measuring instrument, and an inertial navigation device. These components are installed in a vehicle that can capture images along roads while traveling at normal traffic speeds. Within days, images along approximately 200 miles of county roads were captured.

The eRoadInfo ArcGIS extension is the centerpiece of this image asset management system. Using both the eRoadInfo ArcGIS extension and the images, geo-referenced asset records for signs, guardrails, and pavement markings were created and delivered to the county. From the ArcGIS environment, DPW GIS users can click on the objects in the image to create geo-referenced asset records and click on a road to view images as driving video along the road. Users can also click on an asset to view the image used to collect the asset and select a database record to request the corresponding image.

"The eRoadInfo system provides Frederick County DPW with the means to 'spatially' collect roadway asset information and view field conditions of county roads like pavement, guardrails, and signs without the need for field visits. That saves staff time and provides a safer means for roadway inspections," Reedy shared. "The success of this past summer's pilot project with the eRoadInfo system indicates this data collection method will be highly effective for roadway asset management in the future."

The eRoadInfo ArcGIS extension viewing application proved to be the ideal tool for verifying the accuracy and status of existing data layers. The ability to perform object location and measurement on photos while synchronizing the cursor position on the map and photos provides a greater depth of information that is accessible through the GIS map.