City of Winnipeg
Now that’s Smarter Streets.
“Envista now allows the City to manage utility projects and avoid needless road cutting and repaving. In the end, Envista will help us substantially stretch Winnipeg’s capital budget for streets—all good things for the taxpayer.”
— Derrick Saedel, Supervisor of the Underground Structures Group, City of Winnipeg
For more than a decade, the Public Works Department of the City of Winnipeg, Canada has seen a steady rise in the number of project requests for construction and maintenance in the city’s right of way. Traditionally, the Department’s Underground Structures Group, which is charged with coordinating infrastructure projects, would use spreadsheets to share project information. However, a spreadsheet without a spatial component did not provide adequate information to coordinate projects across multiple departments and utilities.
Facing the monumental task of coordinating thousands of construction projects with nothing more than spreadsheets, Winnipeg’s Public Works Department set out to find a better way. That search led straight to Envista, which could take the City’s project data and present it via an interactive online map in geographical and temporal context. With Envista, the City of Winnipeg has transformed the way it manages infrastructure projects, as well as a host of other street activities.
Efficient coordination allows limited budgets to go further
One of the most immediate benefits Envista brought to the City was the introduction of paving moratoriums — a rarity among jurisdictions in Canada. By capturing moratorium information and sharing it with all the entities with an interest in the right of way, Envista now helps both Public Works managers and external utilities to understand the impact their projects have on freshly completed street paving so they can coordinate their project schedules more efficiently.
Derrick Saedel, Supervisor of the Underground Structures Group, explains, “By mapping moratorium information, Envista opens up numerous opportunities for internal and external project owners to execute their work before a municipal paving project begins and a street goes under moratorium for several years. Our utility partners can optimize construction planning, reduce paving budgets, or face a cut permit degradation fee as an alternative. We can now safeguard our newly paved streets, and help other infrastructure players save money in the process.”
Envista project coordination technology also allows outside private utilities to interact with each other. “Electric, gas, and telcom utilities had informal communications in the past, but would rarely share trenching costs,” says Saedel. “Now we have one centralized data center and an online forum that allows them to communicate, coordinate, and reduce their costs. One less cut on our roads is one less disruption on our community, not to mention the side effects of dust, traffic, delays, and more.”
Saedel predicts that time-consuming site meetings will be eliminated as Envista’s communications tools provide valuable contact lists of key owners and project managers. When a conflict arises, all stakeholders who are impacted by a change in the system can be notified via email with an embedded map of the project conflict or issue.
“Road construction is very, very expensive,” notes Saedel. “It impacts the public, not only commuters, but also pedestrians and cyclists in an urban environment. Taxpayers have the expectation that a new road will last 40 or 50 years. With a single cut, the road’s lifecycle is reduced by a whopping 30%. Envista now allows the City to manage utility projects and avoid needless road cutting and repaving. In the end, Envista will help us substantially stretch Winnipeg’s capital budget for streets—all good things for the taxpayer.”
Versatile activity mapping seals many gaps in managing the right of way
Very quickly, Envista has helped Winnipeg seal a number of gaps in its right-of-way infrastructure management and related processes. For example, the City’s traffic management group uses Envista’s permit management modules for its Cut Permit program. With Envista, traffic coordinators can review a cut permit, visually check the map-based system for projects or permits in or near the designated location, and decide if a job can be performed during the requested timeline.
The traffic management group leverages Envista to visually coordinate special events, such as marathons and parades, in relation to roadway and utility project schedules all on a dynamic online map—avoiding conflicts with roads and streets under construction. Street incidents, such as a water main break or a traffic accident, are also managed with Envista by quickly identifying street closures and mapping out detours.
Envista creates a smooth road ahead
Winnipeg’s goal is to put all of its projects–current and future–into Envista, providing everyone involved in the right of way with the critical tools they need for conflict resolution and the daily business of project coordination.
“Looking at Envista in the context of the long term is so very important,” concludes Saedel. There is a large subdivision being built on the edge of town that will need to hook into existing infrastructure. Everyone involved in this project needs to know what our long term plans are for this area. Will we build out the main road? Will there be any rapid transit? How will the hydro folks handle the new demand? With Envista, both internal and external utilities are now on the same map to tackle the giant maze of construction work scheduled for decades into the future.”
“With Envista, both internal and external utilities are now on the same map to tackle the giant maze of construction work scheduled for decades into the future.”
— Derrick Saedel, Supervisor of the Underground Structures Group, City of Winnipeg
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 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 street 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.
