Page 14 - Alabama 811 Magazine 2019 Issue 4
P. 14

From Reams of Paper to Location Intelligence
The City of Auburn gets smart about locatton technology
amirnarioawies
811 Magazines mproving and simplitying the
locate process is a goal fur all
urillty operators, but for smaller
_ , . — municipalities, it can he an
»—_ 7 - w ‘, T imperative.
I  As utility rights-ui-way become more
A , _ _._—— _ crowded by the year, accuracy and
A . ' timeliness of tiilalling locate requests is
l a top priority for municipal water and
-— ‘ =; ' wastewater operations.
—: I A Thats especially true tor Aiiliurn. an
j V —. eastern Alabama town that dates back
T to the lasos, knnwn nationally as the
E home ui the Auburn Tigers.
, f, . 7*’  ‘ Last year, Chris Cirafl, ahiet deputy
— — ‘ intormation officer with the city of
- —, K ' , , ' -» Auburn realized they could leverage
’ L a ,, technology and data tools to save time,
—' ' fl . money and accuracy.
7 »—' ' ' ‘ ‘ ,__ Chris, who spoke nbuul the city's data
M1 ’/7 ~ § a tmnsfurmntiun at the Z019Alabama
, - , _ ' ‘- Damage Prevention summit, said the
” ; ” ~—— ' I * city was louklng to reduce damages
_ ’ ;__._.z-up a on their 900 miles of underground
— 54-? e . . .
,—, ,,a‘:fi(—-\,_ . intrastructiire. but the data was scarce,
._._.%~~ —; . .
.. ‘ 5; except in its raw form.
,2.-\ , «—.._, _. : _, — _
5- *' - ‘,;‘— — ‘ Processing and analyzing was typically
— . 4 ' ' ' viewed as a hack-humer issue by the
——,I- city — compiled unly atter every other
-9} V V‘ — V - e ' ioh had been completed. It existed as
numbers on sheets of paper rather than
,—__;_=—.-: V —  ._ paints uf intorinatian an a computer
— ’ a ‘ " I that cuuld lie iinessed into telling a
  story.
T #3 = And chris became the author of the
-—V— __ ‘T - story. The Data whisperer if yuu will.
~— — ; His plan included using data as a ton!
. g_ * ‘ 3 to help streamline the locate process, as
~— ‘ 1 well as ensure every ticket is handled
“ ' quickly and accurately. And to do that
i 7 _ ,, :A 7 he employed two new applications
< — — ,_ , _, ‘; Digsmart and cityworlts.
E  — ~ Beginning in 2018, when a locate
V ~ ' request is received liy Alabama 811 in
,\ : the Auhiim area, a notice is emailed to
la.‘ c the city of Auburn, and the intormation
an the request is transterred into
12 . Alabama 811 2019, Issued













































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