PAD Utility Coordination

About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

The most challenging part of almost any construction project is identifying the various wet and dry utilities within the project footprint and their exact location. The mission of any utility coordinator is to ensure no catastrophic conflicts will stop a project during construction. Since no off-the-shelf solution could be found, Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) Utility team thought up a creative solution. Our goal was to create a software tool that could import CAD design files into a GIS platform with survey grade accuracy. Our solution is a software tool called the “PAD Program” for utility coordination. This program combines the convenience of GIS mapping with the precision of traditional engineering-level CAD drawings and survey-grade GPS equipment into one user-friendly mobile device.This allows the user to physically walk on or mark out any proposed design feature or boundary line in the field without the need of a land surveyor – essentially, turning any traditional paper plan set into a life-size, dynamic, editable roll-plot of the proposed design. The result is a reliable tool, vastly improving MCDOT’s ability to coordinate utility plans. It saves staff resources by mitigating potential project delays and unnecessary change orders due to utility conflicts. Most importantly, it has improved communications and bridged the gap between technical engineers and the field workers who ultimately construct the project. (Figure 1-3)