Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission

Now that’s Smarter Streets.

“Envista allows our users to align their project schedules so street cuts occur only once. This helps us cut down on street closings, which avoids traffic problems and reduces the negative impact on our neighborhoods. Most important, Envista helps our governments and utilities stretch their limited budgets by realizing very significant savings in paving costs.” —Trisha Brush, Deputy Director for GIS Administration, Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission

Since 1961, the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission (NKAPC) has been providing support and direction to guide growth and economic development in Northern Kentucky. Through diligent planning, as well as partnership with 32 cities and two counties’ fiscal courts (board of county commissioners), NKAPC is helping to create a highly desirable place to live, work, and play.

Planning is at the heart of NKAPC’s mission, and one of the areas of prime focus is Northern Kentucky’s streets and roads. Coordinating projects among city, county, and state governments and area utilities can be a monumental task. Much of this coordination flows through GIS Administration, which provides geographic data and maps that help each of the players locate and track their respective projects. Until recently, however, this process was heavily paper driven and time consuming.

A visioning workshop focused NKAPC’s attention on streamlining the paper process to save both time and money, while improving service and safety for Northern Kentucky’s citizens. After an exhaustive RFP process, the Commission found only one solution that did not require expensive custom software development: Envista. Because Envista is map-based “software as a service” delivered via the web, NKAPC could begin using it very quickly without a large up-front capital investment.

Trisha Brush, NKAPC’s Deputy Director for GIS Administration, says, “We saw Envista as leading the industry in map-based coordination and found the online tools very easy to use. In a matter of weeks, we launched the first phase of our program bringing together the water and sanitation utilities and fiscal courts from two counties, along with the City of Covington—all coordinating their projects through Envista.”

As Brush explains, project coordination is focused on minimizing street cuts. If the water district cuts into a street for repair one week, then a different utility comes along with another cut a week later, the result is not only public disruption, but considerable expense for paving and re-paving the street. Reducing the number of street cuts through better coordination leads directly to cost savings and improved community satisfaction.

“Envista allows our users to align their project schedules so street cuts occur only once,” notes Brush. “This helps us minimize street closings, which avoids traffic problems and reduces the negative impact on our neighborhoods. Most important, Envista helps our governments and utilities to stretch their limited budgets by realizing very significant savings in paving costs.”

City of Covington realizes $18,000 in immediate savings from Envista Project Coordination

The early cost savings enabled by Envista map-based coordination is very real, and the City of Covington in Kenton County provides a perfect example. Like most cities, paving costs represent a large portion of Covington’s annual public works budget. Especially with rising asphalt costs, the City needed to minimize paving wherever possible without sacrificing the performance and safety of its streets.

Mike Yeager is the Assistant City Engineer and manages the Engineering Division, which is responsible for coordinating street repairs and construction projects, including utility projects that fall within City limits. “We operate on a three-year plan for resurfacing City streets,” Yeager explains. “By having this information in Envista along with other utility projects, we can avoid unplanned resurfacing, which saves everyone a lot of money.”

Case in point: In the fall of 2010, the City of Covington planned to pave three streets where the Northern Kentucky Water District also had plans to replace water mains. The Engineering Division requires that utility companies restore a full lane width when they cut into a City street. Thanks to Envista’s map-based coordination, Yeager was able to identify the overlap in these projects and work with the Water District to incorporate the resurfacing requirements into their projects, saving the City a significant amount of money.

More entities using Envista means more effective decision-making for all involved

The City of Covington and the Northern Kentucky Water District have led the way in adopting Envista’s map-based coordination. As Brush points out, the value of Envista will only increase as it is used by other jurisdictions, utilities, and county agencies. “We’re following a phased approach to involve as many entities in Northern Kentucky as possible. With a growing number of organizations using Envista, we’re able to facilitate much more effective decision-making, enable streamlined project coordination, and realize even greater savings for everyone involved.”

NKAPC has completed four phases of its long-range rollout. Currently, there are 22 entities using Envista, with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Duke Energy, Cincinnati Bell, and a number of cities recently added. As these users and others ramp up, Brush foresees additional ways that Envista will enhance efficiency and coordination.

“We are starting to work on loading pavement condition indices into Envista,” notes Brush. “By knowing the pavement condition, cities can plan their resurfacing projects more effectively. Utilities can also focus their projects on streets and roadways where the pavement condition is poor and most likely in need of resurfacing anyway. With this kind of information visible to our users—particularly our utilities—they can all be much more proactive in planning projects, which ultimately comes back in the form of cost savings and time savings.”

“Envista had an immediate impact on our productivity and efficiency … the City and the various utility companies are now able to coordinate and prioritize projects into the future based upon each other’s needs and budgets.”

— Mike Yeager, Assistant City Engineer, City of Covington, Kentucky

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 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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