What's more, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) discovered its road projects were unnecessarily costing the state millions. Thanks to a partnership with a software company in Gainesville, Fla., the state solved its road woes while creating a product that could potentially help other states address theirs.
The MDOT found itself in this unpleasant situation as a result of several intertwined factors. For starters, a budget crunch in the mid- '90s resulted in personnel cutbacks for the MDOT.
"I got here in '95, and the department was re-engineering," said Doug Couto, agency services information officer for transportation and several other Michigan agencies. "They cut 40 percent of the staff as part of that re-engineering. Then there was an early retirement, so we lost people through that as part of a budget reduction. At the same time, the state increased the gas tax. It got more federal money. So it had the effect of doubling the throughput -- the amount of work we were doing. We would have had to add a substantial amount of people to the programs."
The combination of budget, personnel and project management issues made the department vulnerable to costly errors. The department's time-consuming road projects also required processing various types of paper-based data gathered from construction sites, which increased error potential.
To alleviate congestion and devise a more error-proof construction management process, Michigan partnered with Info Tech of Gainesville, Fla., a software-design and marketing company, to devise a technology solution.
The partnership yielded the development of FieldManager -- a suite of construction management applications designed to track construction data and monitor project progress, said Couto.
"To ensure the state is getting what it paid for, an inspector does the daily report and says, 'There were 20 people on the job. This much cement was delivered. They removed this much dirt. They put in this certain feet of guardrail,'" he explained. "The information is logged and put in the software, and the field inspector goes back to the office to download the information onto the central server."
Nuts and Bolts
The suite can be installed either as a stand-alone on a laptop or on a client/server and accessed over a network. Once FieldManager is installed on a laptop, department staff or contractors can use them in the field to manage construction projects.
"Some of them have custom-built mounts for their laptops," said Couto. "One guy has a mount that fits over his steering wheel, so he sits in the driver's seat and does his work. Another guy has a tabletop mount next to him. They can take it out and go sit under a tree."
The MDOT and Info Tech developed FieldManager -- for laptops only at this point -- using Sybase PowerBuilder, a database design tool that allows users to work in specific environments. Beyond PowerBuilder, however, is another Sybase product that allows developers to design applications specifically for smaller devices.
"We provide a database at the enterprise level where you can show the large volumes," said Raj Nathan, senior vice president and general manager, Infrastructure Platform Group at Sybase. "Plus, we provide a small database that is in sync with the enterprise database on the small device itself. This database is actually already built into Pocket PowerBuilder, so when people develop the application, there is already a database within that environment for them to go test it out, put it in there and have it that way."
Using Pocket PowerBuilder, an application designed at the enterprise level can be deployed on small devices in the field. Developers can be confident that what they see during the design phase will appear the same way on a Pocket PC.
"That is something unique we offer that other companies don't offer," Nathan said. "Some companies will offer the enterprise database but will not be able to offer the small device database. Some companies will offer the small device database but will not offer the enterprise."
Data collected in FieldManager has yet to be transmitted wirelessly, but the MDOT has plans for the future integration of wireless capabilities in the department.
"We're concerned about reliability, so we will do some pretty extensive testing later this year with some targeted areas and make sure we get the bugs out," said Couto. "There are some dead spots around the state with cellular, so we want to make sure it actually works. We're also doing some testing with handheld devices. There's a concern that when you get down to the smaller screen, there is a space issue."
Saving Time and Money
The department was facing $5.1 million in initial costs for the software, which would subsequently be paid for by the MDOT, Info Tech and other transportation departments that wanted to have particular features added.
Despite the hefty price tag, the way Couto and the state saw it, money would be saved in the long run.
"We saved 400,000 hours in the first season we measured, which represents $22 million of avoided labor cost per year," he said. "The ROI was immediate."
The state will gain returns in the long run as well.
"The software is owned 50/50," he said. "They have marketing rights, so they can make additional money for providing services. We envision the license fee going back into the product. When sales hit certain levels, though, Michigan gets certain royalties from those sales."
The design team understood the potential for FieldManager to be integrated into not only MDOT projects, but also those of transportation departments throughout the country.
"A lot of thought went into the suite," said Couto. "One of the things the design team did was work real hard to make the tool flexible. We try to make this win-win for the nation. When we were doing the development, we believed we were creating something that added value to people who were doing something similar."
As a result, the development team created the program with a goal to allow other jurisdictions to customize FieldManager according to their specific needs. "There's an agency modification module in the tool," said Couto. "If you're in Wisconsin or you're in Oakland County, you can turn it on very easily. You can turn other functions off just as easily. Wisconsin doesn't want Michigan forms all over."
If other states are interested in deploying the software, they simply have to pay a licensing fee to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. AASHTO is a nonprofit association that carries out numerous responsibilities for departments of transportation in the 50 states and Puerto Rico. One responsibility is licensing transportation software products to its members.
One major benefit of this licensing program is that interested states do not have to re-spend $5 million in software, said Couto.
Integrated as a module in AASHTO's Trns.port product suite, FieldManager organizes data gathered in the field using applications like Inspector's Daily Reports, FieldPad and FieldBook, which are also included in the suite. However, to use FieldManager, other jurisdictions do not have to purchase the entire suite.
"We designed FieldManager so it stands on its own," said Couto. "It's a very focused tool. It focuses on the inspector responsibilities at the construction site. The information is logged and put in the software and the field inspector goes back to the office to download the information onto the central server."
Couto said FieldManager has made for happy contractors and happy drivers in Michigan, and could do the same for other states.
Catherine Pickavet is a freelance writer studying in New York City.
