Frustrated by road construction projects that tear up brand new pavement? Want to see tax dollars and monthly utility payments go further? You’re not alone.
The LINK-GIS partnership is working to implement an online tool that will cut down on road construction-related frustration. It will also help stretch the dollars residents pay for utility service and taxes. The online tool which is rooted deeply in GIS mapping technology will be operational later this month.
“Our first goal was to get road construction projects for the two fiscal courts, the water and sanitation districts, and the city of Covington into the system,” said Dennis Gordon, executive director of Area Planning and managing partner of LINK-GIS. “Now that those five are uploaded and nearly operational, we’ll move on to get projects from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) and 31 cities entered in the system. Our hope is that most if not all of them will be online before the start of the 2010 construction season.”
Gordon says talks are underway to get Duke Energy to join the collaborative effort.
As its being deployed, the pavement coordination program will provide all local governments in the two counties along with the water and sanitation districts and KYTC with a tool to centralize pavement inventories and coordinate road construction and maintenance projects. It will do this with a convenient online place to share relevant planning information with all affected parties.
“One of the most prevalent reasons for new pavement being disturbed is lack of communication,” said Gordon. “The number of jurisdictions we have here in Kenton and Campbell Counties makes communication difficult. Our online tool will get beyond this headache because jurisdictions can upload their construction projects once and know that all utilities and all their neighboring communities will have access to it.”
Gordon says that once everyone who is doing construction in public rights of way is aware of what others are planning, they can all be more efficient with their limited resources. This efficiency, he asserts, will pay off with fewer oversights and less cost to rate and tax payers.
This online coordination tool is being funded jointly by Campbell and Kenton County Fiscal Courts, the Campbell and Kenton County PVAs, Northern Kentucky Water District, SD1, and NKAPC.