Jeff McDonald//March 13, 2014//
City Council on Wednesday allocated $250,000 to the Portland Bureau of Transportation to set up a “web-based application system” to lay the groundwork for better coordination among bureaus, private developers, utilities and telecommunications companies on street projects throughout the city.
The money will aid efforts to track and map capital improvement plans and management systems so that decisions affecting public right-of-way are coordinated, PBOT spokesman Dylan Rivera said.
“The public tells us they’re frustrated when they see one organization block a lane or a sidewalk for work in the street, and a couple weeks later the same block is torn up again,” he said. “This gives the perception of a lack of coordination.”
The first phase is determining which agencies are using what systems so that their work can be tracked and a solution can be recommended, Rivera said. Currently, he added, PBOT uses about a dozen different databases, and other bureaus use dozens of different databases and software products.
Coordination with different agencies could take six to 12 months, Rivera said. Implementation of a solution could be part of a second phase, if more dollars are granted, he said.
The money came via a $906,000 package. Ten bureaus in November submitted a total of 23 proposals to the Innovation Task Force; seven were approved Wednesday.
A $90,000 allocation went to the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability for Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data collection. The mapping of surface topography and objects in the city will improve, so that design and planning can be more efficient and accurate, according to the city.
Also, more LIDAR data is expected to improve understanding of potential hazards, such as floods, landslides and earthquakes.