Data-Driven Pavement Management: How InteractiveGIS and FirstStep Are Transforming Road Maintenance in Oklahoma
Imagine driving on smooth, well-maintained roads year-round — what if the secret to this reliability was cutting-edge technology guiding every decision? For city and county governments, managing pavement inventory and assessing road conditions are the key to ensuring safe, long-lasting roads that keep communities moving smoothly.
To meet this challenge, InteractiveGIS partnered with FirstStep Pavement Management, a company owned by DataStream Management LLC, to create a fully customized web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) solution tailored for the unique needs of Rogers and Wagoner counties in Oklahoma. These counties sought a data-driven, scientific approach to make informed and defensible decisions about which roads to prioritize for paving, ensuring that their choices were backed by reliable insights.
This collaboration integrated advanced pavement management technology with GIS tools to empower county staff with better insights and more efficient tools for managing their road networks. Let’s dive deeper into this innovative use case to explore how these two companies have made a significant impact.
A Strategic Partnership
We partnered with FirstStep Pavement Management to bring advanced mapping technology to Rogers and Wagoner counties. At the heart of this project was the goal of making pavement management easier, cost-effective, and scalable. The InteractiveGIS team worked closely with Michael G. Morgan of DataStream, LLC, and his experts to incorporate FirstStep’s pavement inventory and assessment technology into their GIS platform. The combination of InteractiveGIS’s customizable mapping software and FirstStep’s geolocated video technology allowed Rogers and Wagoner counties to have up-to-date, comprehensive data on their road conditions in a user-friendly web GIS. This collaboration allowed them to incorporate FirstStep’s real-time video data, empowering the counties to perform accurate evaluations of their road networks.
The Core Features of the Platform
Our customized web GIS platform is packed with features to simplify the management of their pavement data and overall infrastructure. Here’s a breakdown of the major components:
- Pavement Data Integration
FirstStep’s data included detailed inventories and assessments of streets, sidewalks, curbs, and even stormwater systems. This data, combined with geo-located video, enabled the county to get an accurate picture of their pavement conditions and to monitor changes over time.
2. Work Order Management
The system provided an intuitive interface for managing work orders. Each call or issue recorded could be linked directly to a related work order, allowing authorized county users to track, update, and manage the entire workflow. This capability made road maintenance activities far more organized and transparent.
3. Pavement Maintenance Dashboard
The pavement management dashboard served as the control center for the counties. It featured customizable graphs, pie charts, and metrics that allowed county officials to plan and report on the state of their roads. This dashboard was fully integrated with FirstStep’s pavement data, creating a seamless bridge between the data collection and the decision-making process.
4. Roadway Condition Monitoring
The system was designed to track the condition and distress of roads and make it easy for county staff to identify problem areas. Users could filter and sort road data based on their current needs, ensuring that maintenance efforts were always targeted and efficient.
5. Policy Table for Roadway Maintenance
The policy table acted as a guide for which types of maintenance could be handled internally by county staff and which would need to be contracted out. This allowed the counties to manage resources effectively and would ensure that maintenance activities were aligned with internal policies.
6. Life Extension Functionality
One of the standout features of this system was its ability to calculate the life extension of the county’s road network. By comparing the amount of maintenance being performed against the rate of deterioration, county officials could gauge whether their efforts were sufficient to extend the life of their roads and identify areas where more maintenance might be needed.
7. Crack Seal Project Management
The platform provided specific metrics to help staff determine which roads were ideal candidates for crack sealing, a critical part of preventative road maintenance. This feature ensured that the counties could make data-driven decisions to prolong the life of their pavement.
Here are some additional glimpses of the capabilities of the FirstStep Pavement Management module:
Why This Partnership Matters
The partnership between InteractiveGIS and FirstStep Pavement Management has provided Rogers and Wagoner counties with a cost-effective and scalable solution for pavement management. According to Morgan, FirstStep’s technology offers “a modern crystal ball” of road networks, allowing the counties to make smarter, data-driven decisions regarding the maintenance and improvement of their infrastructure. When asked about the success of this partnership Morgan states, “FirstStep Pavement Management has enjoyed working with David Bradshaw and the InteractiveGIS team for many years. We both listen to our clients – creating solutions that work for them.”
Robin LePage, Special Project Coordinator for Rogers County Oklahoma District 3, expressed the significance of this improvement by stating, “Working with InteractiveGIS and FirstStep for our pavement management planning and asset inventory management is like living your whole life on a dusty, gravel road and suddenly you’re driving on a newly asphalted, striped road, you never want to go back to the gravel!”
This analogy perfectly captures the impact of upgrading from outdated, labor-intensive methods to a data-driven, streamlined system. The ability to visualize, track, and manage pavement conditions in real-time has provided Rogers and Wagoner Counties with unprecedented clarity and efficiency. By moving from manual processes to digital solutions, counties can now prioritize maintenance, optimize budgets, and ensure the long-term sustainability of their infrastructure.
By combining InteractiveGIS’s web-based GIS capabilities with FirstStep’s expertise in pavement condition assessments, the counties now have access to a powerful tool that allows them to evaluate, plan, and maintain their infrastructure effectively. This not only ensures better roadway conditions but also provides a framework for long-term, sustainable infrastructure management.
This partnership demonstrates the power of collaboration in solving complex infrastructure challenges. For Rogers and Wagoner counties, the ability to monitor and manage their road networks using a fully customized GIS platform has made a significant difference in how they maintain their roads, allocate resources, and plan for the future. This case is a prime example of how innovative technology can transform traditional infrastructure management practices, creating more efficient, data-driven solutions for municipalities.
InteractiveGIS and FirstStep’s work together serves as a model for how other counties and cities can leverage similar technology to achieve better outcomes for their infrastructure management projects. By remaining cutting-edge, they are paving the way for more modern, efficient, and cost-effective solutions in the field of pavement management. Want to learn more about how InteractiveGIS can provide a custom mapping solution for you? Reach out to us for a consult or FREE demo!
