Penticton increases efficiency of road management with geographic information systems
KELOWNA, Esri Canada User Conference – May 29, 2018 – The City of Penticton today received Esri Canada’s Award of Excellence for their nimble adoption and innovative use of geographic information system (GIS) technology to manage their road networks. When they expanded their use of spatially enabled data to include roads, it made management and upkeep of these vital arteries much more efficient. And it was done very quickly. The Esri Roads and Highwayssolution implementation started in January 2017 and went into production in October.
“Smaller municipalities like the City of Penticton have fewer resources with which to manage infrastructure repairs and maintenance. The ArcGIS platform enables the City to coordinate different activities through one system. They can plan for capital spending, track their assets and improve staff workflows while sharing any of that information easily. This means the City is more effective and much more fiscally efficient,” said Alex Miller, president, Esri Canada.
As the cost of infrastructure maintenance has moved from senior to municipal levels of government, cities like Penticton are feeling the financial pressure. Penticton’s municipal staff had already seen the benefit of migrating their inefficient paper systems for electrical utilities to a geo-based data system. It was clear that a similar migration would also benefit their road networks.
Working with a local GIS consulting company, HARTerra Spatial Solutions, to assist with the installation and configuration of the Esri Roads and Highways solution using the ArcGIS platform, they found that – among other benefits – information about roads, highways, curbs, sidewalks and streetlights could be shared with staff and external contractors easily. And because field crews could update it from the field, they were confident the data was accurate.
“We’ve improved and simplified our process,” notes Dave Polere, IT Manager, City of Penticton. “We can now access and visualize our data in a single format that can easily be shared across the organization.”
It has also benefitted those in the community who do not drive. The inclusion of the pedestrian network into the database gives the City a foundation that can be the basis for a fully connected, multi-modal transportation network including transit, walking and cycling.
Learn more about Esri Roads and Highways.
See related webinar: Making Sense of the Big Data That is Your Road/Street Network
About the City of Penticton
Penticton is in the south central region of British Columbia, known as the Okanagan Valley. With over 2,100 hours of sunshine and only 15 inches or rain annually, the area has a comfortable climate year-round. The City is surrounded by two fresh water lakes and gentle rolling mountains which allow for a wide variety of outdoor recreational activities. This is augmented by a newly renovated Community Centre containing two indoor pools, 4 sheets of ice, tennis courts, a curling rink, and a state- of-the-art South Okanagan Events Centre, housing the Penticton Vees hockey team. A complete range of retail services and public education facilities, and a full spectrum of medical services including a 129-bed acute care hospital round out the advantages that Penticton has to offer as a place to live and a place to do business. For more information, visit: penticton.ca.
About Esri Canada
Founded in 1984, Esri Canada provides geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower people in business, government and education to make informed and timely decisions by leveraging the power of mapping and spatial analytics. These solutions enable organizations to better manage their resources, plan their future and collaborate within and beyond their organization. Esri Canada’s products and services help advance successful digital transformation. The company serves 12,000 organizations from 16 offices across Canada and is based in Toronto. In 2015, Esri Canada became a Gold Standard winner of Canada’s Best Managed Companies and in 2016 was named one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures. More information can be found atesri.ca. Follow Esri Canada on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube