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Hidden Assets
Technology, teamwork harness powerful information systems for the North Texas Tollway Authority
From his desk at the North Texas Tollway Authority headquarters in Plano, Texas, Rick Herrington can put his finger on the pulse of more than 263 lane miles of tollway in four counties, where more than 500,000 customers pay 945,000 tolls each day. An Enterprise Geographic Information System developed by HNTB is his information hub.
"It gives us a common interface for all of our applications, so our end users can go in and look at data that has linear reference points," said Herrington, NTTA assistant executive director. "When people are using the system, we know the savings that we envisioned from time and budget will be there."
The EGIS enables quick and accurate reporting on toll collection, facility assets, capital projects and resource planning, all in a geographic, map-based system. Now tasks that took weeks can be accomplished in minutes.
Need toll tag account information by zip code? Instantly compile statistics in a map or tabular report. Want to know how many trucks to deploy for snow and ice removal? Consult the sanding plan based on locations of stockpiles, equipment and personnel. Wondering how many customers are in a politician’s district? Generate a map that displays transactions within its boundaries and transmit that map to a personal digital assistant.
"If an elected official calls our executive director, Jerry Hiebert, he pulls up a map so he knows where their constituents are located, what their district boundaries are and how much business we’re doing within those boundaries," Herrington said. "He has all the information that deals with the district right in front of him."
Excerpt from "Hidden Assets," Designer, No. 75, June 2003, pp. 4-7. Copyright 2003 The HNTB Companies, Kansas City, Mo. |
