Fort Wayne & NE Indiana News

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Government

City Utilities Wins State Recognition

Using technology to create a standard-setting and valuable information system that will improve service and save money, has earned the City Utilities Geographic Information System (GIS) the 2018 Excellence in GIS Award.

Presented by the Indiana Geographic Information Council (IGIC), the award recognizes GIS departments that push the envelope and demonstrate outstanding use of geospatial technology to improve the world.

For City Utilities it was a commitment to enhance tracking and keep accurate data of asset risks – specifically the vulnerability of water pipes that may be past their useful life. Led by Senior GIS Analyst, Troy Gray, the staff worked to create an industry, standard-setting program that will save customers money and allow the Utility to serve residents and businesses better.

The on-going challenge of water main system is to proactively rehabilitate or replace pipe before they break and cause service interruptions for businesses and residents and traffic headaches for motorists.

The endeavor was to build an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) that would identify assets (water and sewer pipes) that are at the highest risk, most likely to fail, and cause problems for customers. After nearly two years of working with the utility engineering team, Gray was able to build a GIS function that assigns a rating to almost 3,000 miles of water and sewer pipe underneath our Community. In the coming years the results of this work will aid in replacement scheduling and help City Utilities reduce pipe breaks that require emergency repairs.