Cartegraph, a leader in infrastructure asset management software, is pleased to announce the winners of their 2021-2022 High-Performance Operations Awards, as well as their Flag Forward Awards. The prestigious honors recognize government agencies, utilities, and parks for creating safer, more sustainable, and more resilient communities through smart infrastructure management.
The following 12 organizations stood out for their innovative use of infrastructure data, efficient work order management, commitment to sustainability, and responsiveness to resident requests. Aside from receiving a fancy award and earning epic bragging rights, winners will have their stories shared in various ways and be celebrated as thought leaders among their peers.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE OPERATIONS AWARDS
Salt lake City, Utah
The capital and most populous city in Utah, Salt Lake City is embodying the idea of high-performance government and working hard to be better every day. Instead of managing their infrastructure assets through four individual departments using separate systems, they're creating consistent processes and centralizing information in their asset management software. The streets division is now automating workflows to increase productivity and cut down on delays, while the facilities team is responding to requests an average of 7 days sooner than they were a year ago. Overall, the city is using condition data on their infrastructure assets to create long-term improvement plans and capital funding requests.
Waynesboro, Virginia
Water departments know the importance of backflow prevention programs to ensure the health and safety of the water supply. But meeting state regulations can be a cumbersome task. The City of Waynesboro, VA turned to technology to manage their water backflows and parcels, monitor test results on a centralized dashboard, and automate the notification process. By switching to instant email notifications, the city estimates postage savings of 70%, along with saving thousands of dollars in workflow efficiencies each year. More importantly, the team has confidence in the quality of their program so they can maintain compliance and protect their water distribution system.
Clark County, Nevada
The Public Works Traffic team in Clark County, NV is making strides toward their vision of becoming a 'smart county' through the use of technology. By pairing Cartegraph with ArcGIS and SeeClickFix, the county is streamlining workflows and improving response to resident requests. Today, Clark County crews are managing work orders on mobile devices, tracking infrastructure data with easy-to-understand dashboards, and improving the way they manage their daily operations. The team estimates an efficiency gain of 1,500 working days in the first year alone.
Plano, Texas
Tracking water quality and water loss are two critical tasks that often rely on manual calculations and plenty of paperwork. That was the case in Plano, TX until this year when they upgraded and automated these workflows with their asset management software. Today, the team is completing routine checks of meter readings and capturing test results in Cartegraph. They set up automations to calculate key data points and ensure data integrity—and built reports to see progress in real time. The team estimates that this automated workflow is saving supervisors 450 hours (over $15,000) each year. Added bonus: it's also saving the city 3,000 pieces of paper annually.
Charleston County, South Carolina
With rising sea levels and flooding issues, Charleston County recognized a need for a stormwater asset management program that integrated with ArcGIS. The county set out to conduct condition assessments on 110,000+ pipes, ditches, inlets, and other stormwater assets in their GIS database—using their Cartegraph asset management system to estimate life span and prioritize capital improvement projects. Today, the team is saving more than $225,000 by leveraging an in-house team of GIS professionals to validate their stormwater data with ArcGIS Collector, ArcGIS Online, and ArcGIS Enterprise. They plan to share this model program for effective stormwater management with other coastal communities.
Frederick County, Maryland
Without a universal asset management system, various divisions in Frederick County, MD were relying on outdated software, a 20-year-old custom database, separate spreadsheets, and a pen and paper-based maintenance system to manage their infrastructure assets. With the guidance and support of EA Engineering, the county connected ArcGIS and Cartegraph to streamline cross-department asset management in a centralized system. Today, the county is managing 96 different asset types—including sewer laterals, water mains, fire hydrants, buildings, and playground equipment—with modern technology. This gives the team easy access to critical infrastructure management data, improves response times to resident requests, and creates a system of record for historical information.
Village of Buffalo Grove, Illinois
In August 2021, a significant windstorm hit the Village of Buffalo Grove, IL. As the team worked to track their storm debris cleanup activities, they uncovered some process inefficiencies that inspired them to create a better Emergency Operations Plan for the future. Now, when they need to organize and track clean up efforts for any storm or natural disaster, the team uses 11 unique Emergency Operations polygon assets. This helps crews document time spent in each cleanup zone and easily avoid duplicate efforts. The team says the new process will cut data entry time in half—and make it 'practically effortless' to submit information to FEMA for reimbursement, even if the damage stretches across county lines.
Kansas City, Missouri
$40 million and 30,000+ street segments. That's the annual program that the Street Preservation team manages in Kansas City, MO—including all resurfacing, micro-surfacing, and crack seal activities. In the past, the team determined their plans through a manual process that involved exporting and reviewing data over the course of 4-6 weeks (not counting a typical interruption from snow removal season). Today, the team is leveraging Cartegraph Scenario Builder with ArcGIS to efficiently identify what work needs to be done and how much it will cost. With a quick export of the contract list, stakeholders can verify and make adjustments before routing for approval. The new workflow is saving the team 150+ hours (and a few headaches) each year.
Manatee County, Florida
One of the fastest-growing counties in the state, Manatee County, FL is striving to manage its ever-expanding infrastructure. Today, the team is leveraging Cartegraph with ArcGIS to securely store and easily retrieve information about its 2,000 assets—including 675 buildings and 2.1 million square feet of operational space. With the adoption of modern technology, the team has improved processes for field surveys and inspections, risk management assessments, energy tracking, and more.
FLAG FORWARD AWARDS
Launched in 2017, the Flag Forward award winners are handpicked by Cartegraph CEO, Josh Mallamud. Inspired by the Cartegraph flag, these awards are intended to recognize organizations that are challenging the status quo and revolutionizing the industry. There are four recipients this year.
Town of Oro Valley, Arizona
Today, more than ever, local government agencies are striving to create better digital experiences for both their residents and employees. The Town of Oro Valley did just that with the overhaul of their Adopt-A-Road/Trail program and website. Their innovative use of web hooks with Esri and Cartegraph solutions is creating a seamless process for end users and the team behind the scenes.
Windsor, Colorado
Like many communities in Colorado, the Town of Windsor has faced significant population growth in recent years. With an increased demand on their infrastructure assets, the town is embracing modern technology and smart integrations to manage every infrastructure asset: indoors, outdoors, above, and below-ground.
Le-Ax Water District, Ohio
The Ohio EPA's evolving asset management program is inspiring water districts of all sizes to review their processes and systems. Serving the Village of Albany and nearly 7,000 customers across 17 townships, Le-Ax Water District is ahead of the curve. They're pairing Cartegraph with Muni-Link to efficiently capture critical data and meet state requirements.
ABOUT CARTEGRAPH
Cartegraph, an OpenGov company, builds safer, more resilient, and sustainable communities through better stewardship of critical infrastructure. They offer powerful, intuitive SaaS solutions that help government agencies, utilities and educational institutions manage their physical assets and associated operations. With Cartegraph software, users optimize the life of their infrastructure, deploy maintenance resources efficiently and increase productivity to drive high-performance operations. For more information, visit cartegraph.com.
