The Logan County Highway Department has been instrumental in developing GIS in Logan County. With full access to the data layers, the Highway Department uses GIS on a daily basis. "I can't imagine the productivity lost if I did not have this information at my fingertips," says Bret Aukamp, Logan County Engineer. "With GIS, I can immediately zoom into the aerial photographs whenever I receive a question, either in person or over the phone."

What is the right-of-way on my road?

 

 

Another project has been to locate all of the road signs along County Highways and township roads. This is a way to establish an inventory of the road signs in preparation of an upcoming federal grant to replace many of the older signs that are not retro-reflective. This was also used to verify that warning sign placement distances were compatible with the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Verification of these distances without GIS would require on-site measurement of every sign. Needless to say, the use of GIS saved dozens of man-hours.

 

 

All centerline striping has been documented with GIS. Now, when a road is resurfaced or sealcoated, we can easily mark off the No Passing Zones using global positioning coordinates.

 

The Highway Department has linked the Logan County GIS data to several IDOT databases. For instance, every structure in the county with a span of at least 20 feet has been inventoried. A query can be made with this database to indicate the number of bridges with sufficiency ratings less than or equal to 50.

 

 

Queries are routinely performed in the planning processes of road improvements. When faced with shrinking buying power from existing roadway funding, it is imperative to make wise decisions. For example, if a query were run to determine which local roads in Logan County have a daily traffic count of at least 500 cars, but have a surface of less than 22 feet wide, one could see where road widening would be most beneficial. This analysis is essential when deciding the best uses for limited funds.

 

 

These are just a few of the common examples that the Highway Department performs using GIS. As new layers are added, queries can be made to analyze data to make wise decisions for programming road funds. Without GIS, these decisions would take much more time, decreasing productivity in a small office environment.