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THE TECHNOLOGY HEADLINES
ECH
ALK
HOW GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS SAVE
TIME AND MONEY ON MAJOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
By Charlie Rudkin co-founder and COO of BetterGIS
CHARLIE RUDKIN
CO-FOUNDER AND COO
BETTERGIS
U
sing a Geographical Information
System (GIS)in construction
planning and facilities
management has become one of the
smartestand most effective ways to
avoid expensive overruns and costly
delays.
As a Northern California community
college recently discovered, the
capabilities of a GIS can pre-empt
potential costly problems and keep
construction on schedule and help its
capital planners see around the curve.
The college realized those benefits when
an executive asked BetterGIS to merge
its master plan with the infrastructure
maps for the campus. That task was
quickly and easily accomplished, and
created a unified view of how the plans
and existing utilities all fit together.
AUGUST 2019
The college’s study in success is why a
growing number of organizations are
integrating GIS into all of their planning
and operations. existing infrastructure. The college
also avoided the risk of disrupting gas
pipelines, high-voltage electric lines and
a high-pressure water line.
The Big Picture
GISprovides digital mapping of
underground, surface and overhead
assets and offers on-demand access to
help teams via any device, anywhere,
anytime. Multiple Use Cases
UVARA was actually used on three
separate campus projects to help
execute the college’s master plan.
The technology, typically delivered as
Software as a Service (SaaS), creates a
digital map room that can be used in
every phase of planning and operations.
As a central, online repository, GIS also
preserves institutional knowledge and
ensures the efficient management of an
asset over the course of its lifecycle.
For the Northern California
community college considering a major
construction project, GIS proved to be
an invaluable tool.
After seeing the consolidated master
plan and infrastructure map, it was
clear that the first building slated for
construction was sited directly on top
of the main utility corridor of the entire
facility. Based on that information, the
project, which was a week away from
going to bid, was postponed so the
planners could find a new location on
the campus.
In another instance, UVARA helped
the college learn that the foundation
of another building encroached on
the utility corridor. By identifying
the problem early on, the college
avoided unanticipated costs, risks and
disruption on campus. In response,
the architect for the college revised the
building’s footprint to sidestep conflicts
with storm water, sewer and other
gravity systems.
On another project for the college,
BetterGIS helped identify the
misallocation of utility connection
points into a proposed building. There
were only a few utility maps covering
the build site to allow planners to
properly locate those assets in the first
place.
The cost of re-engineering and
reconstructing the infrastructure
would have exceeded the entire cost of
the building had UVARA, the flagship
product of BetterGIS, not spotted the
issues. Bringing services into the building as
designed would have required adding
hundreds of feet of pipe or conduit
going around to the back of the building
to make appropriate connections. That
would have added unplanned costs
and delays to the project. To resolve
the matter, the architects used UVARA
and saw they could simply flip the
orientation of the building to position
the utility connection points just a few
feet away from the services.
By using UVARA, the college was able
to dodge a costly mistake. The college
saved significant time and eliminated
the additional cost of rebuilding the The ongoing work for the college
demonstrates the significant benefits
organizations in any industry can
realize when using UVARA.
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