Data Management and Governance Practices (2017)

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7 Overview Of TranspOrTaTiOn DaTa Various types and items of data are collected and produced at every phase of the transportation project/ asset life cycle (Figure 3). An overview of the categories of data collected or produced at various phases of the transportation project/asset life cycle is provided next. • Planning and programming: In this phase, multiple categories of transportation data (e.g., travel, system inventory, systems condition) are used to determine long- and short-range transportation improvement priorities and help identify candidate projects for improving facility conditions, enhancing safety, and mitigating congestion. The primary outcomes of this process include transportation improvement programs (TIPs) and state transportation improvement programs (STIPs). These improvement programs usually are accompanied by a financial plan that describes the cash flow and feasibility of the candidate projects (Sinha and Labi 2007). TIPs, STIPs, and accompanying financial plans [such as statewide long-range transportation plans (LRTPs)] in themselves turn to data that need to be maintained. For example, North Carolina DOT maintains a publicly available web-based geographic information system (GIS) for its STIP (Figure 4). Data items available for each project include STIP number, TIP number, route/city, project description, project costs, and construction year. The data in this system are usually updated every 2 years, after decisions have been made on projects to include in the program. • Environmental analysis and preliminary design: In this phase, project location and scope are defined and alternative preliminary designs are evaluated to assess their potential social and environmental impacts. This process involves the collection and analysis of data related to these impacts. Data produced in this phase include environmental impact and compliance data and preliminary design plans. • Design: In the design phase, many documents, drawings, and data sets are created in electronic format. Examples of these data include construction plans and drawings, right-of-way plans, digital terrain models, schedules of quantities, and spreadsheets of various data. Many state DOTs use electronic document management systems (e.g., ProjectWise) to organize, store, and share design data. • Construction: Data generated in the preconstruction and construction phases include real estate data (e.g., appraisal document, acquisition date, demolition contract), procurement data (e.g., bid documents, bid tabulations), and field data (e.g., material samples and test results, payment data, daily work reports, change orders). State DOTs are beginning to embrace elec- tronic collection, review, approval, and distribution of construction data and documents in a paperless environment; this process is known as e-Construction. This process has resulted in less use of paper documents but an increase in electronic data. Table 1 shows data and data management systems used in e-Construction at a sample of state DOTs. In addition, civil inte- grated management is emerging as a shift from document-based project delivery and manage- ment to a system based on three-dimensional models enabled by technologies such as light detection and ranging (Lidar) (Sankaran et al. 2016). • Operations and safety: Transportation operations consists of a range of activities necessary for the proper functioning of a system, including routine traffic and transit operations, public safety responses, incident management, snow and ice management, network–facility management, planned construction disruptions, and traveler–shipper information (Neudorff et al. 2012). NCHRP Synthesis 460: Sharing Operations Data among Agencies (Pack and Ivanov 2014) identi- fied numerous groups of operations data. These data are related to traffic incidents, traffic flow, weather, transit, computer-aided dispatch, connected vehicles, signal systems, and more. chapter two review Of LiTeraTure On TranspOrTaTiOn DaTa

8 Planning & Programming Preliminary Design & Environmental Impact Analysis Operations & Safety Maintenance Monitoring Construction Design Data FIGURE 3 Transportation project/asset life cycle. FIGURE 4 Example of a web-based data system for STIP, North Carolina DOT (https://connect.ncdot.gov/projects/planning/Pages/ State-Transportation-Improvement-Program.aspx) (last accessed 7/16/2016).

9 Traffic safety is a key component of transportation operations. A TRB peer exchange on improv- ing safety programs through data governance and data business planning (Hall 2015) suggested that crash data typically are used to identify and evaluate countermeasures and perform predictive analysis. The peer exchange also indicated that how crash data are collected, stored, analyzed, and disseminated differ from state to state. For instance, in Iowa crash data records are collected by law enforcement personnel using the Traffic and Criminal Software (TraCS) for all crashes involving at least one fatality, one injury, or at least $1,500 property damage (all vehicular and nonvehicular property). The Iowa DOT’s Motor Vehicle Division maintains crash data for the state’s roadway system. The data consist of crash environment (e.g., date, time, severity, weather), roadway char- acteristics (e.g., road classification), driver details (e.g., age, gender, condition), vehicle descriptors (e.g., vehicle configuration, cargo body type, vehicle year), injured person details (e.g., age, gender, injury status), and nonmotorist information. Crash data are analyzed to produce various forms of crash reports and analytics (Figure 5), which are maintained and made available to the public on the Iowa DOT website. • Maintenance: A 2015 survey of state DOTs found that most have a maintenance quality assurance (MQA) program in place or intend to implement a program within the next 5 years (Zimmerman 2015). As part of these MQA programs, state DOTs collect roadway condition data for pavements, roadsides (e.g., vegetation), drainage features (e.g., culverts, ditches), traffic features (e.g., signs, signals, guardrails), bridges, and special facilities (e.g., rest areas, tunnels). Typically, these data are collected annually through field surveys (Zimmerman 2015). In addi- tion, many state DOTs track the cost and work history of highway maintenance activities in computerized maintenance management systems. Data collected through such systems and MQA programs are used for the planning, budgeting, and scheduling of maintenance activities. • Monitoring: This phase involves the collection of data on the in-service performance and use of the transportation system. Increasingly, these data are collected through automated means that include sensors, nondestructive testing devices, and wired and wireless communication net- works. For example, automated and semiautomated pavement condition surveys are conducted to collect data on surface distress, roughness, and friction. State DOTs commonly conduct these surveys annually or once every 2 years (Pierce et al. 2013). The collected data are stored in the agency’s pavement management database along with other data categories, such as structural evaluation data collected through nondestructive testing, inventory, use (e.g., traffic volume), and pavement layer characteristics. Transportation agencies use these data to measure pavement performance and inform pavement maintenance, preservation, and rehabilitation decisions. In addition, pavement management data are the source of the pavement data reported to the highway performance monitoring system (HPMS) and will be used to meet the performance management reporting requirements established in MAP-21. naTiOnaLLy ManDaTeD TranspOrTaTiOn DaTa In addition to data collected and generated throughout the project/asset life cycle, state DOTs assemble transportation data to meet reporting or compliance requirements. Examples of these data programs are described next. State DOT Electronic Document Management System Field Data Management Software Florida ProjectSolveSP SiteManager Michigan ProjectWise FieldManager Missouri ProjectWise for contract plan and job special provision storage SharePoint for document storage SiteManager Texas ProjectWise for document storage and minor workflow itemsDropbox for file transfer SiteManager Utah ProjectWise MasterWorks TABLE 1 DATA AND DOCuMENT MANAGEMENT SySTEMS uSED IN E-CONSTRuCTION

10 Highway performance Monitoring system The HPMS is a national-level highway information system that integrates data on system inventory, asset condition, and operating characteristics. These data are used by FHWA, as mandated by Con- gress, to assess the extent, condition, investment needs, and changes brought about by improvement programs for the highway system. Although HPMS includes all of the nation’s public road mileage as certified by the states’ governors regardless of ownership, it covers in greater detail the National Highway System. Title 23 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 420.105(b) requires the states to provide data that support the FHWA’s responsibilities to the Congress and the public. Thus, HPMS data are collected and reported annually by all states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and to a lesser extent u.S. territories. The HPMS Field Manual (FHWA 2015) states that “although there may be other participants in the collection and reporting process, the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy and timely reporting of HPMS data lies with the State highway agency.” The data required for the annual submittal of HPMS are categorized as full extent data (limited data items on all public roads), sample panel data (detailed data for designated sections of the arte- rial and collector functional systems), summary data (areawide information for urbanized, small urban, and rural areas), and linear referencing system data that provide a spatial reference for the full extent and sample panel data on selected highway functional systems. Authorized state person- nel can use the HPMS software to upload, analyze, and process HPMS data for their agencies. FHWA maintains web-based tools for downloading and viewing HPMS data by the general public, including shapefiles, containing 26 data items for each state. A shapefile is a preparatory Ra te p er 1 00 M ill io n Ve hi cl e M ile s of T ra ve l FIGURE 5 Example analysis of crash data from Iowa DOT.

11 vector data storage format developed by Esri for storing the location, shape, and attributes of geo- graphic features. The national Bridge inventory The National Bridge Inspection Standard, implemented in 1971, requires states to regularly inspect highway bridges in the united States. This inspection is required for all bridges and culverts with a minimum length of 20 ft that are on public roads. The data are collected by state highway agencies and provided to the FHWA. The FHWA compiles and manages the database and makes it available to the public on the Internet. The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database contains inventory and con- dition data for highway bridges and culverts since 1992. The 2015 NBI database has 611,845 bridge records, and each record contains 116 attributes (data fields). The electronic NBI database was first assembled in 1972. Since then, the FHWA has changed its policies regarding public disclosure of NBI data several times to improve transportation security. Therefore, in some periods of time, research on NBI was conducted by the FHWA or other agencies that had access to the database for official use only. Currently, all elements of NBI data (inspected after 1992) are available publicly online. real-Time system Management information Title 23 CFR 511 requires state DOTs and other transportation agencies to establish real-time systems management information programs for traffic and travel conditions. These provisions are to be implemented in two stages: all u.S. Interstates by November 2014 and other metropolitan routes of significance by November 2016. Routes of significance are to be identified by states in collaboration with local agencies. In 23 CFR 511, traffic and travel conditions include, but are not limited to, the following: • Road or lane closures because of construction, traffic incidents, or other events; • Roadway weather or other environmental conditions restricting or adversely affecting travel; and • Travel times or speeds on limited access roadways in metropolitan areas that experience recurring congestion. Metropolitan areas are defined as the geographic areas designated as metropolitan statistical areas with a population exceeding 1,000,000 inhabitants.