Telus: this state-of-the-practice software is helping MPOs and DOTs improve their transportation planning

Public Roads, Nov-Dec, 2002 by John W. Epling

Project History

This feature keeps track of all revisions made to a project, including the date of the change and the reasons for it. The user who needs a report of all revisions to a project can go to the reports module, described in "Preformatted Reports," select the preformatted report for project-revision history, and either view it on the screen or print it.

Project Scheduling

The project-scheduling feature of TELUS maintains the status of single- and multiyear projects on a quarterly or annual basis (the user selects). This module includes both numerical data and color charts reflecting the planned and actual schedule, by phases of work, and the status of project costs, by committed and uncommitted funds.

"Being able to track project funding by year and phase of work has been an especially valuable feature for us," says Dan Troxel of the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission in Ohio. "And once we got the preformatted reports to reflect information the way the State DOT wants, we were able to put the system into full use."

Project Interrelationships

This module provides users with the capability to identify and analyze potential relationships among transportation projects. TELUS performs an automatic search and identifies projects that share certain characteristics, such as same mode, county or municipality, corridor (highway or rail line), and phase of work (construction). TELUS then displays a list of projects with potential relationships. Since TELUS only identifies potential relationships, the user must examine the relationships to determine whether they are of concern.

Mapping

The GIS module enables users to access their agency's GIS system to view the project's location, select TIP projects for analysis, and print maps of projects for inclusion in reports. V3.0 uses ESRI MapObjects[R] for this purpose.

Project Scoring

TELUS includes a project-scoring module with a default scoring system based on the seven TEA-21 planning objectives: economic vitality, system integration and connectivity, safety and security, system management and operation, accessibility and mobility, preservation of existing system, and environment and quality of life. Each of the objectives includes a number of scoring factors. An eighth category enables the user to identify and score locally important factors such as project readiness-to-go. In the default system, both the categories and factors are weighted but can be modified by the user. The user also can choose to create a completely new scoring system.

Planning Analysis

TELUS offers a planning analysis module that calculates the degree to which the entire TIP meets the seven TEA-21 planning objectives. This calculation is based on estimates of the percentage of project costs that are typically attributable to the achievement of one, several, or all seven objectives. For instance, the cost of fencing along both sides of a new highway supports the planning objective of safety and security of the transportation system. If the cost of fencing were found, typically to be 0.1 percent of the cost of these types of projects and one of these types is in the MPO's TIP at a total cost of $40 million, then $40,000 is attributed to safety and security for that project. The remaining cost of the project might be attributed to some or all of the other objectives.