Under an open-end work order for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, RETTEW provided preliminary design and final engineering services for a resurfacing project along the Northeast Extension. The project required field inspection of a 5-mile stretch to identify milling and paving limits, safety issues, drainage repairs, and areas requiring full-depth patching. Knowing digital field data collection can save a significant amount of time, RETTEW’s in-house GIS experts developed a mobile GIS application allowing smartphone users to electronically collect the locations of suggested roadway maintenance, the current condition of each feature, and the recommended type of repair as they walked the roadway.

To maximize efficiency, RETTEW used Esri’s ArcGIS Online web applications and Collector for ArcGIS mobile application. Because the information goes directly into GIS, a map can be quickly exported showing the survey results. Mapped features can also be exported to CAD or other formats, and summary tables can easily be prepared showing the count, type, and condition of the features, as well as the type of repair. Time spent reviewing and processing the results of the field inspection was significantly reduced since all the project information was stored in one place, and photos were linked directly to each inspected location. This method allowed RETTEW to obtain quality data that was easily shared, summarized, and analyzed, while promoting worker safety by minimizing time in the field.