Lines image

5 Ways that 1Spatial is helping DOT’s with HPMS Submittals

Written by Kevin Sigwart (COO, US Operations, 1Spatial, Inc.)

Life can be difficult and messy. Why not let 1Spatial make it easier?

U.S. State, Tribal and Federal agencies are responsible for reporting the extent, condition, performance, use and operating characteristics of the Nation’s highways. This information is known as the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS). The generation of these products is extremely tedious for agencies and can eat up valuable resources for months at a time. This prevents states from focusing on their core mission, including making roadways safer for all of us. Transportation organizations throughout the US struggle with their HPMS submissions. It is challenging aggregating, validating, and cleaning results from multiple asset systems into a submission. That’s where we come in.

Our HPMS solution uses a rules-based approach to automate the implementation of the HPMS validations into your network data. Our solution is configured to use the same HPMS validation rules that are implemented at FHWA (Federal Highway Administration). See 5 ways below on how 1Spatial can make your HPMS team members’ lives less stressful:

1. Trust the process: 1Spatial has established an HPMS Kickstarter package to help State DOT’s turn the HPMS submittals into a process instead of an event. 1Spatial wants you to avoid the stress of having to get all your data aggregated, validated, and submitted in a short time window. Use the Kickstarter package to automate the process and continuously aggregate/validate/maintain HPMS data to reduce the burden of the submittal.

2. Snakes begone!: We have worked with FHWA to transition the validation checks from python scripts to 1Spatial’s 1Integrate rules-engine. The validation checks still include attribute validations, however the 1Integrate implementation will also include validation of topological relationships of data items. Leveraging a rules-based engine will make the validation checks more transparent. In fact, FHWA is providing the 1Integrate ruleset to any State DOT that wants it. The HPMS kick starter package helps DOT’s deploy and configure these rules into their environment.

3. Topology, eek!: Nervous about using the topological network to validate your HPMS data? These new topological checks will require State DOT’s to ensure the road network is topologically sound. 1Spatial has your back. We included an HPMS readiness assessment in the package. This ensures the data is ready for new topological data quality checks

4. Fly through the process with ease: We’ve worked with DOT’s to configure our 1Integrate rules engine to connect directly to the source data. This builds the translation actions “on-the-fly" into the HPMS expected format. It then runs the exact HPMS validation rules FHWA has deployed within their system. This implementation has many advantages for DOT’s:

  • No need to attempt to interpret the HPMS field manual to infer what types of validation checks FHWA may be performing. The rules in this implementation use the same technology/checks that FHWA has implemented.
  • No need for overhead of using a 3rd party pre‐processing step or a manual process to generate the HPMS product before running the validation checks. This makes HPMS submissions more of a process and less of an event. Further, this process can be refined as needed to simplify and automate the entire HPMS submittal process.

5. Improvement is a lifelong process: State DOT’s like Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are implementing 1Spatial’s HPMS Kickstarter Package and are on their way to a more automated process for performing HPMS readiness. And, through our HPMS Users Group, they are providing valuable input on ways FHWA can improve the existing validation rules and reported results. This will make it easier for all states to understand why the data doesn’t conform and identify exactly what the issues are and where they are located prior to submission in order to correct them either through automation or through manual cleanup in their system of choice. It’s a win/win for everyone.

Kevin Sigwart is the Chief Operating Officer for 1Spatial Inc. Working with federal, state, and commercial clients, he architects innovative solutions to help solve data quality, integration and synchronization issues across disparate and siloed systems. Kevin is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on developing and architecting interoperable solutions across geospatial and non-geospatial systems. He has 15+ years of experience working as a geospatial developer, analyst, and architect.