The engineering and consulting firm MWH has converted thousands of storm drain-related drawings into San Diego's geographic information system (GIS), alleviating a backlog of work and giving city officials a more complete picture of their storm water system.
As part of the project, which is expected to be completed by year-end, the MWH Business Solutions Group also conducted an asset management review to determine other engineering and construction information from the final drawings that should be entered into either the GIS or the city's asset management database to better administer ongoing storm drain projects.
When MWH started working on the project in early 2008, nearly 3,000 hard-copy, as-built drawings needed to get converted into the city's storm drain GIS – a reflection of San Diego's commercial and residential growth. City officials anticipated it would take more than 14 years to complete the conversion project based on their current processes. Using their experience from similar GIS and asset management projects in Pasadena, Calif., and Cleveland, the MWH team completed the backlog in one year.
"We were pleased to help San Diego officials with a storm drain GIS and asset management project that supported their focus on consistency and efficiency, while using our wet infrastructure expertise," said Peggy Umphres, a San Diego-based MWH project manager and MWH Business Solutions Group vice president. "San Diego now has a complete map of its hundreds of square miles of storm drains and an effective process for managing this important system."
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