As-built drawings have long been used by the Long Beach Water Department (LBWD) as the
last word on underground water utilities. Such information is vital when responding to a water
main break or when designing new facilities near existing ones. Until recently, as-built drawings
were stored away in a central map vault, making them difficult to access when needed. This paper describes how, with the
help of CDM, LBWD developed the As-built Image Retrieval System (AIRS), a computer-based
system that allows both engineers and field personnel to access as-built drawings when and
where they are needed.
LBWD designs and replaces approximately 100,000 linear feet of potable water pipelines each
year. The As-Built Water Design Drawings Project consisted of approximately 120,000 linear
feet of water pipelines, involving approximately 120 drawings, constructed within the city of Long
Beach during 1999-2000. The project objective was to translate comments from "red-line"
drawings marked by field personnel on to the original vellum/mylar plans. Final as-builts were
then scanned into digital files.
AIRS was developed under this project to maximize the usefulness of the digital as-built
drawings. AIRS provides a means to access and view digital as-built drawings, and links as-built
drawings to existing database and geographic information systems (GIS) tools already familiar to LBWD personnel.
For years, LBWD has tracked water main construction projects using a relational database
program. They also built an impressive GIS-based water atlas that geographically represents all
water mains throughout their system. AIRS is designed to complement these systems,
extending their functionality. The project-tracking database was extended to include data on
scanned as-built drawings and the interface was enhanced to allow users to view as-built drawings from within the program. Thus,
with a few clicks, an engineer sitting at a
desk can view high-quality scans of the
as-built drawings for construction
projects.
Includes figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 1.5 MB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 4 |
| Published : | 06/16/2002 |
