These two innovations from the Town of Addis and Tangipahoa Parish have been officially entered into the Build a Better Mousetrap, a national recognition program led by FHWA Center for Local Aid Support (CLAS) that highlights locally relevant, innovative solutions and provides a platform to share innovations to everyday challenges that local and tribal transportation professionals encounter on local roads. Read more on https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/clas/babm/.
Tangipahoa Parish Government Utilizes Mobile Solution to Develop Drainage Inventory
The Tangipahoa Parish Government (TPG) recently had a tremendous opportunity to enhance drainage effectiveness across the parish, but they lacked the data needed to maximize this potential. In 2022, both the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Louisiana Watershed Initiative (LWI) were working to model and map the parish watershed. However, TPG had no current data regarding the number, locations, sizes, and conditions of the cross-drain pipes crucial to effective drainage. In response to this challenge, the TPG staff worked overtime to develop an innovative mobile solution to close this information gap.
TPG’s goal in this project was to provide USACE and LWI engineers with a comprehensive drainage layout of the parish. To accomplish this, local officials expanded the scope and function of the parish’s existing web-based GIS mapping system, which was previously limited to road and bridge data. Employing the assistance of a local consultant firm, TPG leaders set out to determine the material (box, metal, or plastic), type (round or arch), dimensions (diameter for round, length and width for arch), and condition of every cross-drain pipe in the parish, including not only those located on parish-maintained roads but on state- and municipal-maintained roads as well. The process for collecting this data was fairly straightforward, but also quite time-consuming.
At each culvert location, an individual technician would perform an on-site evaluation, measuring its dimensions, assessing its condition, and taking several photos using a mobile phone or other handheld device. All of this information was entered directly into the TPG mobile GIS app from the field, which expedited the process of providing up-to-date data to USACE and LWI. This procedure was performed on over 7,000 cross-drain pipes across the parish (4,630 crossings on parish-maintained roads and 2,609 on state- and municipal-maintained roads), a monumental effort in a reasonably short period of time.
While the USACE and LWI are utilizing this newly acquired data in their current modeling and mapping project, the benefit of TPG’s work will also extend well into the future. The parish now has over twenty years of historical data on cross-drains and culverts that can be used in ongoing assessment and maintenance as the rapidly growing area’s drainage needs continue to shift. Additionally, both the mobile application and data collection method developed in this process can be continually refined for the benefit of parish engineers, planners, and more. Congratulations to the Tangipahoa Parish Government for this fantastic innovation!
Addis: From Small Town to Smart City
The Town of Addis is a growing town located in West Baton Rouge Parish, along the Mississippi River. It is situated on Louisiana Highway One, just minutes from the state’s Capital city of Baton Rouge. Addis is known for its small-town atmosphere while offering unique advantages of close location to metropolitan areas, major universities, business and industry.
With its population being projected to increase at an accelerated rate, the Town of Addis is working toward its transformation from a small town to a “smart city.” Experts in the engineering and construction field define a smart city as one that uses information and communication technology to improve operational efficiency, share information with the public, and provide a better quality of government service and citizen welfare.
“We’re a small town, but that doesn’t mean we think small. Partnering with RMT will allow us to manage and improve our local road networks as our town continues to grow.”
According to the Town of Addis Mayor, David Toups, they began working with Arkansas-based technology company Roadway Management Technologies to understand the town’s infrastructure better. “We found that it was critical to increase our budget efficiency to prolong the life cycle of the town’s infrastructure with the increase in traffic volume,” says Toups.
Through this Smart City Initiative, the Town of Addis aims to scan the road network more clearly to begin preserving their roads which will in turn increase their lifespan. Utilizing RMT’s technology has allowed them to execute and build their pavement preservation approach.
Candler McCollum, RMT’s CEO, previously stated, “Roads can last up to 40% longer” when a strategic preservation model is being utilized. Mayor Toups is now able to utilize the results of this data collection to drive the decisions they make regarding projects in Addis’ road network.
Community involvement is integral in this initiative. It was Material Resources, Inc. (MRI) that introduced Mayor Toups to RMT. Utilizing the data from RMT, MRI has been able to structure a pavement preservation plan specific to Addis’ needs.
“With access to the real-time data collection provided by RMT, we have been able to evaluate an entire network and select project candidates much more efficiently than with traditional survey or inspection methods,” explains MRI Vice President Ryan Casto.
Casto adds that once preservation applications have been made, they are able to remotely monitor the performance of these applications and calculate quantitative return-on-investment metrics. These metrics can then be used in predictive modeling through the RMT system to build and simulate future plans for the town of Addis’ road network and infrastructure to ensure a sustainable future for the citizens of Addis.
If you have any local agency innovations to share, please email LTAP@la.gov.