Transportation Asset Management

Transportation Asset Management is a strategic and systematic process of maintaining, operating, upgrading, and expanding physical roadway assets effectively throughout their lifecycle. It is an important part of the road infrastructure planning and management process. It is needed to ensure smooth and safe traffic flow. A well-managed inventory of all roadway assets on a road network is beneficial to transportation agencies. These agencies are responsible for maintaining, managing, and making data-driven decisions for roadway asset management. A comprehensive inventory of transportation assets reduces the potential for liability associated with outdated, inappropriately placed, and/or missing roadway assets.

Roadway Asset Services by iENGINEERING

State-of-the-Practice Transportation Asset Management Solution

Most transportation agencies or service providers conduct a semi-automated process, in which roadway images are automatically collected by the survey vehicle and manually processed to extract roadway assets in the office. The multi-purpose survey vehicles typically collect data and images for at least one week before going back to the office or shipping their hard drives there. The data and images are then uploaded to a central network, or more recently online cloud, for sharing across the organization. Due to the large file size of high-resolution images, the data upload typically takes several days depending on the connection speed. After data upload, trained technicians use point-and-click software to manually detect and classify the transportation assets.

Process Modernization through Transconomy

Transconomy is a product of iENGINEERING that provides an AI-based end-to-end roadway asset inventory management solution. Transconomy collects, processes, and visualizes data for all critical transportation and infrastructure assets. The Transconomy ecosystem comprises of Collector, Hub, Manager, and Viewer. Transconomy Collector is a smartphone app for roadway image collection. Transconomy Hub provides cloud storage and automated asset extraction capability powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Transconomy Manager is a web-based platform for the management of asset inventory projects. Transconomy Viewer is a web-based platform that provides enhanced data visualization and powerful analytics on thematic interactive maps.

Transconomy creates accurate roadway asset inventories meeting Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) specifications. Its AI models recognize traffic signs based on the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) for Streets and Highways, and other roadway assets based on available national and state standards and specifications. In addition, it also generates roadway asset inventory for other continuous and point assets including critical facilities and infrastructure within the highway right-of-way, such as safety appurtenances (e.g., guardrails and traffic control devices), and other ancillary structures (e.g., barriers, object markers, utility and transmission lines, and networks) documented in The Model Inventory of Roadway Elements (MIRE) recommended by FHWA.

Transconomy adds significant value to the transportation and infrastructure asset management process by providing lower processing time per mile and reduced cost. Utilizing cutting-edge AI models to automatically extract over 300 roadway assets from right-of-way images eliminates human random errors which are difficult to identify and correct. iENGINEERING’s Transportation Asset Management solution also offers stratified quality control (QC) to extract uncommon assets and conditions’ data. Using feedback loops, the AI algorithms get better as more and more data gets processed.

How Transconomy Works

Transconomy provides connected tools that streamline the asset inventory process. These tools allow transportation agencies to conveniently collect, automatically process, and effectively analyze asset inventory data.

The complete workflow of Transconomy for creating a comprehensive asset inventory using Transconomy can be summarized in the following steps:

Plan

Trasconomy’s roadway asset inventory management journey begins with the planning phase in Transconomy Manager. This tool allows splitting network-level projects into manageable areas. These areas are then assigned to data collection drivers (collectors) for data collection.

Collect

The data collectors then use the Transconomy Collector mobile app to collect geocoded roadway images. Once the data collection is completed, the collected images are automatically uploaded to Transconomy Hub using a cellular or WiFi connection. Alternatively, Transconomy also works with roadway images collected from any other device.

Process

Transconomy Hub’s powerful AI-based algorithms automatically extract over 300 roadway assets including traffic signs and other line and point assets based on Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) for streets and highways. This information is compiled as a comprehensive and organized asset inventory based on Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) specifications.

Visualize

Transconomy Viewer visualizes the compiled asset inventory on thematic interactive maps. Useful information including images and videos of the assets can be quickly reviewed by simply selecting the asset on the map. Any type of analytical data in graphical and/or statistical form can be obtained using Transconomy Viewer for analysis and decision-making.

Validate

A stratified QC mechanism is built into the Transconomy workflow to ensure the accuracy of the compiled asset inventory. This mechanism is offered as a service to transportation agencies in which trained technicians validate the automated results of the AI models. This validation powers the feedback loop that continuously improves Transconomy’s AI algorithms.

Integrate

Asset inventories created by Transconomy can be easily downloaded and integrated with your preferred asset management software. Multiple download options are supported including Comma-Separated Values (CSV), Keyhole Markup Language (KML/KMZ), Shapefiles (SHP), or ESRI file geodatabase (GDB).

One of the key features of Transconomy is the ability of its components to also work independently of other components. If you have roadway images already collected and they need to be processed, Transconomy Hub can be of value. In case, you are looking for an automated collection of roadway images while saving cost, Transconomy Collector will do just that. If you have data that does not need any processing but needs visualization and data analytics, try Transconomy Viewer.

To learn more, please check out the Transconomy Brochure.*

 

*This brochure is protected by iENGINEERING’s DRM solution, iWrapper.