Washington Gas Company

Now that’s Smarter Streets.

“In just the first four months of using Envista we realized $250,000 in cost avoidance.” —Darryl Jackson, Director, Operations Work Planning, Measurement and Technology, Washington Gas Company

For more than 160 years, Washington Gas Company has been distributing natural gas in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Today, with more than one million customers throughout the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, the company manages more than 13 thousand miles of distribution pipeline beneath city streets and roadways. That means, every time work is performed to upgrade or repair the system, a portion of roadway must be cut, removed, and restored. Paving restoration could consume as much as 40 percent of the company’s capital expenses, and with ever tightening budgets, Washington Gas needed to find creative ways to make its dollars go farther.

Like many entities that perform work in the public right-of-way, Washington Gas used to meet regularly with fellow utility and municipal project managers to coordinate their respective activities. Typically, information was shared in the form of spreadsheets, or in some cases data was provided electronically. Yet, the information remained static and was difficult to consolidate into a common format. Too often, conflicts were either not visible or not identified soon enough in the project schedule to avoid paving restoration costs.

Darryl Jackson, Director, Operations Work Planning, Measurement and Technology at Washington Gas, explains, “We invested in point solutions such as a GIS system, work management, and jurisdictional paving manager, but to really get the most out of these systems, we needed to integrate information from the other players. This was often too difficult or not timely enough under our old processes. What we really needed was a way to relate our project data geo-spatially with project data from other entities whose systems and services overlapped ours in the right-of-way. Envista provided the exact solution we were looking for.”

Dynamic map-based coordination reveals conflicts before they become costs

Envista’s map-based coordination capabilities are delivered as a 100 percent web solution. Information is presented via an interactive online map in geographical and temporal context, allowing Washington Gas to coordinate in real time with municipalities and other entities involved in the public right-of-way. As a result, they are better able to mitigate wasteful construction or street impact due to conflicting project schedules or lack of information.

“The key to Envista is having other participants in the ecosystem all contributing data,” says Jackson. “For example, within the first few weeks of using Envista, we identified a conflict between a road improvement project planned by a local county and a Washington Gas project. With just a click, we could see details of the conflict—where and when it would occur—and then communicate with the county to align our project schedules. This one example saved us $80,000 in paving costs. In just the first four months of using Envista we realized $250,000 in cost avoidance—money that was used to improve services for our customers rather than pay for paving restoration.”

Another valuable source of savings is avoiding street cuts in areas with moratoriums. After a road improvement project, jurisdictions will often impose a moratorium to preserve the integrity of the roadway and avoid public disruption. In the past, it was not uncommon for the utility to complete the design and permitting for a project only to later learn that a moratorium existed at the proposed project site. With Envista, Washington Gas now has insight into moratoriums across all the jurisdictions in which it operates and can shift project dates to avoid costly false starts and re-work. According to Jackson, this capability avoids potential costs of $10,000–$15,000 per project.

Value grows as more project data is shared within the ecosystem

As data continues to be added to Envista, Washington Gas expects to increase the value and savings available from the solution. For example, the utility uses “keyhole” technology, which cuts a mere 24-inch disk out of the pavement to allow repair work. When the repair work is complete, the disk is simply replaced and sealed. But this technology can only be used if the pavement is of a certain quality level according to the “paving index.” Currently, the District of Columbia is populating Envista with the paving index for streets in its metropolitan area. With the index linked to Envista’s online map solution, Washington Gas will be able to plan keyhole repairs with greater precision, avoiding more invasive street cuts and costly repaving.

Jackson foresees other areas where Envista’s value will grow over time. By integrating Envista with the utility’s asset optimization system, which identifies projects offering the greatest value for a given cost, Washington Gas can avoid on-site inspections to save both time and money. Integrating data from the utility’s work management system into Envista will also help streamline workflow and project efficiency.

The key, as Jackson points out, is that the more participants contribute to the Envista solution, the more value everyone involved in the public right of way can gain. “The value of Envista is proportionate to the contribution of everyone in the ecosystem,” he says. “There are numerous opportunities for participants to improve communications and relationships, and to collaboratively add greater value as a group. We anticipate that by next year, we will realize $1 million or more in savings with Envista. And this is with a limited number of people in ecosystem. As more people join in, the savings will undoubtedly increase.”

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.

To download a PDF of this case study, click here.