Case Study

Cobb County, GA Improves Road Management with OpenGov Pavement Management Software

Located northwest of Atlanta and overseeing approximately 2,500 miles of centerline roadways, the Cobb County Department of Transportation manages the second largest county-owned road network in the state. Faced with major snow events, Cobb realized the circumstances’ complexity and the importance of reacting quickly and efficiently.

The Challenge

Cobb County DOT’s readiness efforts for winter weather include five staging areas for salt and pre-defined treatment routes, as well as equipment for de-icing and snow removal. However, knowing the challenges associated with a major snow event, Cobb also required a traffic management solution that would help it efficiently plan road maintenance and allocate resources during inclement weather. The organization’s need proved threefold:

  1. A better system for documenting the progress of spreader trucks and plows, and helping county leadership predict when specific roads would be cleared.
  2. A tool for accurately planning road maintenance routes so the busiest and most crucial roads receive priority plowing and salting.
  3. A process for informing citizens when to expect local streets to be plowed, salted, and restored to a safe travel condition.

Population
760,141

Agency Type
County

Annual Budget

Role
Public Works

Region
Southeast

Solution
Asset Management

Customer Results

Improved documentation of plow progress

More accurate road maintenance routes

Transparent resident communication

The Solution

The powerful combination of OpenGov and the ArcGIS platform answered Cobb County’s need. During the snow events of 2014, the County used the systems in perfect tandem. By combining OpenGov’s road asset management system software with the road segments feature class in the Esri ArcGIS platform and traffic counts event layer, the DOT created an effective and efficient response that:

  1. Ensured arterial and major routes were prioritized and cleared first
  2. Prioritized services on minor roads through segment slope and traffic volume analysis
  3. Communicated live, up-to-the-minute information to citizens

The Cobb County DOT GIS team has also created a proof-of-concept ArcGIS Dashboard that pulls AVL tracking information in through ArcGIS GeoEvent Server, updating the status of routes that were cleared as tasks are opened and closed in OpenGov. The map shows the status of the snow route, with the color-changing based on when the surface was last treated.

The winter weather dashboard also includes gadgets with surface temperatures from Georgia DOT, links to live camera feeds of road conditions, and real-time weather reports from Waze.

The Results

The Cobb County DOT crew appreciates having their mission-critical data sources in one place. During snow events, they intend to display this ArcGIS Dashboard on the big screen in their ‘war room’, so they can closely monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, residents can access Cobb Commute, a public-facing map with real-time road conditions. This keeps everyone informed and safe.

“This is truly an example of using technology to work smarter,” said Lynn Biggs, Cobb DOT GIS Manager. “Leveraging these technologies helped Cobb DOT streamline our response to winter weather. It’s a game-changer.”

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