Under PSB 11-2, 12-3, and 14-1, the Tollway sought qualified consultants to provide services relating to the Infrastructure Management System. The advertised scope of services included GIS system architecture deployment and migration, technical support services for Esri ArcGIS Server and related development environments, and application hosting support.

Great Arc provided services relating to the Tollway’s GIS, including upgrade and enhancement of existing applications, development of new applications, and general technical support. New and upgraded applications included: an enterprise right-of-way management tool, a virtual drive simulator, new and enhanced utility locate and lane closure applications, and a planning document web viewer. In addition, we have provided continuous hosting support for all servers, applications, and data hosted at IllinoisVirtualTollway.com.

Right-of-Way Management Tool (iROW)

Great Arc Technologies has successfully built and released IROW, a web-based right-of-way management application. Since the initial production release, our team has continued to enhance the application with several additional phase-based releases.

The IROW application delivers several key features to the business. Users of the system can create new records in the system to record the progress of the various acquisition steps. Records can also be located with advanced search tools and updated to match current process status. The application behaves in accordance to the role of the user currently logged in which not only provides a custom interface specific to the function of the role, but also protects data quality and accuracy. Additionally, the system enforces data entry rules and automatically sends notification messages to users as records advance through the various phases of acquisition.

The IROW application was built using industry standard technology components which together form a flexible product framework. This framework was specifically design for adaptability so that the IROW application can continue to meet the Tollway’s evolving needs in the future.

iDrive

Great Arc developed the virtual drive application, a website that utilizes the Tollway’s annual street-level photography to simulate the experience of driving any of the Tollway corridors. This gives Tollway users the ability to choose the camera view(s) and the exact stretch of the corridor via starting and ending mileposts, as well as choose the simulated driving speed. An ESRI JavaScript API map displays the vehicles location and direction of travel while the driving simulation is running, constantly updating the virtual driver’s position on the map.

New imagery is captured and integrated into the system each year. We have prototyped a new viewer that allows users to pan and navigate a new set of 360-degree images and are working to integrate it into their production viewer.

Lane Closures

Great Arc is nearing completion of a replacement application for Illinois Tollway’s current Lane Closure web application. The current application is hosted at the Tollway and accessed by a key number of internal Tollway employees. This new version will expand the user base to include external access by contractors and removing much of the data entry burden traditionally handled by Tollway staff.

With this new application, contractors may now request lane closures directly. If a lane closure satisfies a minimum set of requirements, it may be automatically approved. Throughout the request process, significant business rules are employed to determine whether a proposed closure may be approved including: closure dates and location are within contracted bounds, number of lanes closed does not exceed max closable lanes for time of day and corridor location, closure does not interfere or overlap another closure, closure does not occur on a holiday or other pre-defined event, etc. Any closure that does not conform to a set of requirements will go through an approval process by corridor managers and/or tollway administrators. Automatic notifications including emails are sent immediately to notify target staff of the requests.

Once a closure request has been approved, the contractor can manage the closure using a mobile-friendly dashboard. From a phone, tablet, or laptop, a contract or construction manager will indicate when a closure is beginning or ending using a simple dashboard view. Key personnel are immediately notified when any closure status change is made.

Utility Locates

Great Arc is nearing completion of a replacement application for the Illinois Tollway Utility Locates web application. The new application replaces a legacy application that manages the process of assigning and monitoring the status of utility locates for Tollway project locations.

The application focuses on streamlining communications between parties involved in Tollway construction projects. Tollway and contractors users may subscribe to email notifications to work that they assign or have been assigned to. Locator companies and their locators also receive notifications when new work is assigned.

Once in the field, locators will have a new set of tools that allow them to fully document each site visit. Locators may take notes, attach photos, capture GPS location and indicate locate status. Once completed, all parties are notified.

Planning Document Scanning and Viewer

Great Arc scanned a collection of planning project documents and built a web viewer application to view the scanned documents. The delivered viewer also supported document uploads and indexing. It was used to index the original scanned documents including: name, document type (Contract, Correspondence, etc.), location (corridor and mileposts), as well as any other set of user-customizable attributes.

Documents were scanned to PDF documents with OCR (optical character recognition) enabled. When uploaded into the viewer web application, the text contents of each supported document is extracted to a database where it, and any other indexed project and document data, may be searched using the web application.

Project searches will allow users to quickly refine the list of projects and documents that match the search criteria. The search will also refine the display of project locations on an included map interface.

Hosting Support

Great Arc manages all aspects of illinoisvirtualtollway.com. We are responsible for installing, configuring and maintaining all custom software including iPlans, the Tollway Calculator, PJIV, ROW, iDrive, Truck Permitting, Utility Locates, and Lane Closures. We have updated each mapping application to ensure compatibility with the latest browsers and to keep current with the latest versions of Dojo and the ESRI JavaScript API. We also install, configure and maintain the OS, IIS, ArcGIS Server, SQL Server, Active Directory, and every other technology required to run their custom applications.

Great Arc has installed custom monitoring software on each of the hosted servers to identify when problems occur or are about to occur. We currently receive immediate cell phone notifications and emails whenever the following conditions exist on any of the hosted servers: the server goes offline, the server is shutting down or starting up, memory runs low, drive space runs low, processor usage is high, key services stop or are unreachable (ArcGIS Server, IIS, SQL Server), when one hosted server cannot contact another hosted server, etc. We have two dedicated system administrators that respond to these incidents. If the incident can be resolved by Great Arc administrators, we will connect to the affected server(s) and take the necessary action. If a hosted server cannot be reached, we will contact the hosting provider support to identify the issue for resolution.

Great Arc is also responsible for maintaining a secure host environment for these applications. Routine vulnerability scans are run against all host web servers to ensure stringent PCI compliance. As new vulnerabilities are discovered, Great Arc applies patches/updates to the servers to mitigate.

ArcGIS Enterprise Portal

Great Arc is in the process of configuring an ArcGIS Server Portal environment that will provide a centralized repository of Tollway data that users may use to discover, share and map spatial data. Key to the success of this project is an ongoing data inventory process where data is collected, normalized and described with metadata to support a comprehensive spatial data collection.