In the absence of a statewide inventory roadside feature program, you will find at WSDOT many individual business areas have and are collecting roadside feature information (i.e. utility poles, signs, guardrail, tree groupings, slope information...). These efforts have all been independent of one another and have caused duplicate effort and expense. Data is not consistently stored in a corporate standard format that would allow shared use and maintenance of the data.

Because of the advancements in technology such as GPS mapping grade equipment business areas have the potential to collect roadside feature data quickly and accurately. WSDOT's new GIS Workbench is but one example of new tools recently developed or being developed that allow the business area the opportunity to analyze and work the data efficiently and effectively. These two elements combined have caused an exponential increase in data gathering within the department.

Typically business areas take care of their own needs and have not worked in a collaborative fashion regarding data collection and maintenance of that data. There has not been any infrastructure or program that would cause the collaboration to occur. In fact, generally, we have more incentives not to collaborate than to collaborate.

A few of the notable business requirements that could benefit from an agency wide collaborative approach to feature inventory are: Maintenance needs the data to fulfill environmental requirements and inventory management; Program Management/Project Design needs it to strategically spend safety, unstable slopes, and major electric and drainage dollars; Environmental needs it for regulatory compliance; and Utilities needs it for system wide safety analysis.

Goal

A statewide roadside feature inventory program where the data becomes a corporate asset by:

• Having consistent data definitions and values throughout the department
• Having methods and procedures that everyone follows which will minimize the cost of collection and maintenance of data
• Allowing the sharing of accurate and timely data