City of Baltimore

Now that’s Smarter Streets.

“The amount of savings we’ve realized in such a short time really shows how Envista provides rapid, measurable benefits. It also points to the added value everyone gains when more and more vested entities participate in the overall system.” —Margaret B. Martin, PE, Division Chief III— Department of General Services, City of Baltimore

The City of Baltimore, Maryland has a grand history dating back to pre-revolutionary times. Once a strategic military base in America’s formative years, the City’s deep harbor and central location for inland distribution have made it a major port of commerce for more than two centuries. Today, Baltimore is a vibrant city, rich in education, healthcare, business, arts, sports and much more. As Baltimore continues to grow, it is no surprise that City engineers were challenged to manage the thousands of infrastructure projects, street incidents, and events that take place each year.

Until recently, infrastructure projects were managed the “old fashioned” way—with long face-to-face meetings to pore over spreadsheets, followed by a battery of emails and phone calls that often led to additional meetings. Still, despite the time and effort put into this process, oversights could occur—and when they involved street cuts, those oversights were costly.

Margaret B. Martin, PE, Division Chief III in Baltimore’s Department of General Services, notes, “We had too many meetings and not enough pertinent information. It was all static data with no way to visualize what was really happening in a specific location. When a colleague introduced me to Envista, I immediately knew this was the solution we needed. Envista offers true dynamic infrastructure coordination with easy web access; it’s an intuitive design, so the learning curve was very short; our data is secure; and best of all, it’s affordable.”

Martin and her team have been working with Envista now for more than two years, and have turned the corner from simply coordinating conflicts between capital infrastructure projects—alone a huge achievement. Today, the team is able to proactively review capital projects during the monthly utility coordination meetings, which opens up collaborative opportunities. “We are at the point now where participating entities are able to accommodate shifting project schedule phases for better infrastructure coordination,” says Martin. “Recently, the City had a major road resurfacing effort that was postponed so that Baltimore Gas & Electric could replace a gas line. BGE was then able to save the cost of resurfacing the road because Baltimore DOT came in immediately behind the gas work to repave the whole road.”

An extended ecosystem of Envista users maximizes efficiencies and savings

Since first launching Envista, the City of Baltimore has become the most comprehensive Envista Ecosystem in the U.S., now encompassing the Baltimore Department of Public Works, Baltimore Department of Transportation, and Baltimore Department of General Services, along with area utilities including Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), Veolia Energy (Trigen-Baltimore), and Verizon. Combined, these entities have uploaded more than 1,500 projects into the Envista database. As a result, the City and its ecosystem partners have avoided hundreds of costly conflicts, while also uncovering many opportunities for acting proactively to improve project efficiencies and realize cost savings.

Based on an analysis of key factors such as conflicts and opportunities, the City of Baltimore has realized $390,000 in paving cost savings to date. Going forward, the City projects a total cost savings of over $900,000 per year as a result of using Envista. The next largest player in Baltimore’s ecosystem, BGE, has realized similar paving cost savings of $380,000, with a projected annual cost savings reaching over $1 million.

“The amount of savings we’ve realized in such a short time really shows how Envista provides immediate, measurable benefits,” says Martin. “It also points to the added value everyone gains when more and more entities participate in the ecosystem.”

Leveraging map-based coordination for multiple street activities enhances quality of life

Another way the City of Baltimore has found to extend the value of Envista map-based coordination is by looking beyond infrastructure projects to street events, street incidents, permit management, and more. As the City quickly discovered, by visually managing street activities of all kinds, Envista helps ensure continuity and order in the right of way throughout Baltimore’s streets, ultimately affecting quality of life for the City’s residents and visitors.

The Under Armour Baltimore Marathon, which attracts thousands of runners and spectators each year, winds through many of the most scenic and popular areas of downtown Baltimore. To ensure a successful and safe race, the City and event organizers must carefully map out a course that avoids construction zones, while providing detours to accommodate ongoing traffic. In 2009, this process involved five participants from five different physical locations drafting a detour route online through Envista.

“Coordinating an event like a marathon is challenging all by itself, but this was our first year where we were able to provide a detour route and show the public how to get around, as well as in and out of the route’s ‘island,’ with a graphical map,” recalls Martin. “In developing the detour route, we discovered that the marathon’s detour ran straight into Morgan State University’s homecoming parade! We would never have realized the conflict had it not been for seeing it on the Envista map. So we were able to change the route and avoid any problems.”

Martin also extended this information to the public by making the detour map available on the City’s website. “With Envista’s Public View capabilities, we were able to take the detour map and post it on our website very quickly and easily. This was a very valuable service for the public. And for the first time we had no traffic complaints on Marathon day.”

The City of Baltimore continues to expand the use of Envista to include street incidents such as traffic accidents, fires, and water main breaks. In addition, the City is beginning to use Envista to manage the permit application process, to track its pavement condition index to oversee restoration extents, and to enable much better communication among many different agencies.

“We are constantly exploring new ways to take advantage of Envista’s map-based coordination,” adds Martin. “I see Envista as a real game changer in how municipal infrastructure construction can be managed more efficiently and effectively.”

“I see Envista as a real game changer in how municipal infrastructure construction can be managed more efficiently and effectively.” — Margaret B. Martin, PE, Division Chief III – Department of General Services, City of Baltimore

About Envista Corporation

Envista allows all organizations with a vested interest in the public right-of-way to communicate and coordinate more efficiently and effectively. Through dynamic map-based coordination solutions delivered via the web, Envista provides visibility and real-time insight into street projects and activities, enabling proactive management of utility projects, public works, permitting, incidents, traffic, and events to optimize street performance, reduce costs, and minimize environmental impact. Envista headquarters are located north of Boston in Beverly, Mass. For more information, call Envista at (978) 232-6300 or visit www.envista.com.

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