INTELLIGENT
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
INSPECTION AND
MAINTENANCE MANUAL
(ITSIMM)
Quarterly Meeting Presentation
03.19.2008
The Motivation
How to improve
our existing
transportation
facilities?
• Technology, in the form of Intelligent Transportation
Systems (ITS), offers a valuable tool to improve the
operations, safety and management of our existing
transportation facilities.
• For this reason, a manual of guidelines is to be
prepared that will serve as a reference document to
assist the NJDOT personnel in the inspection and
maintenance of ITS facilities.
Knowledge Base Development Steps
• The main challenge is to develop an effective methodology
to extract the knowledge from a diverse set of sources:
 Experts (DOT personnel, consultants, ITS device manufacturers,
system vendors, suppliers, and contractors),
 Manuals, research literature, other DOT’s and FHWA sources,
related websites, and manufacturer’s published material.
• The intense knowledge base development process used in
this project includes the following well-known steps:
 Knowledge Acquisition,
 Knowledge Elucidation,
 Knowledge Representation, and
 Validation and Verification of the Developed Material.
Knowledge Acquisition
Step 1: Literature Review
• This is the comprehensive review of manuals, research
literature, other DOT’s and FHWA‘s related web sites,
manufacturers’ publications in order to develop ITSIMM.
• This preliminary compilation of existing research studies
resulted in the review of a wide variety of reports and
documents including policies of U. S. DOT Federal
Highway Administration, Institute of Transportation
Engineers, several States (Idaho, Kentucky, Texas,
Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Minnesota, Arizona,
Oregon, Colorado, California, Florida, North Dakota,
Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin) and countries
(Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England), the MUTCD
guidelines, and private sector reports.
Knowledge Acquisition
Step 2: Expert Surveys
• The first stage of knowledge acquisition consists of
sending preliminary surveys and receiving answers.
• The survey includes two sections basically.
 General Questions / Information: The recipients are
first asked to identify themselves. Then, basic
questions about the recipient's involvement in ITS
systems are asked.
 ITS Specific Questions: Then, detailed questions
related to ITS inspection and maintenance are asked.
Knowledge Acquisition
Step 2: Well-structured Expert Interviews
• The second stage of knowledge acquisition includes face
to face interviews.
• The interviews have been identified as the NJDOT
personnel or contractors highly experienced in inspection
and/or maintenance of ITS components.
• Meetings mainly serve as means for gathering information
about the current state-of-practice of inspection and
maintenance processes for various ITS equipment.
• Two meetings have been handled by Orth-Rodgers and
Associates Inc. with Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority and
Delaware DOT.
Knowledge Acquisition
List of Experts Interviewed
CONTACT
PERSON
E-MAIL
SURVEY
INTERVIEW
Tim Bourne
Tim.Bourne@dot.state.nj.us
Completed survey
received.
Interview completed.
Frank Prezioso
Frank.Prezioso@dot.state.nj.us
Completed survey
received.
Contacted, but no response.
Edward Hanna
Edward.Hanna@dot.state.nj.us
Completed survey
received.
Interview completed.
Tiberiu Tajts
Tiberiu.Tajts@dot.state.nj.us
Completed survey
received.
Interview completed.
Bill Brantley
Bill.Brantley@dot.state.nj.us
-
Interview completed.
William Ducsak
William.Ducsak@dot.state.nj.us
-
Interview completed
Howard Donovan
Howard.Donovan@dot.state.nj.us
-
Interview completed.
John McEldowney
John.McEldowney@dot.state.nj.us
-
Interview completed.
Donald Mottola
Donald.Mottola@dot.state.nj.us
Completed survey
received.
Interview completed.
Milton Pequero
mpeguero@dewberry.com
Completed survey
received.
Interview completed.
Jack Hayes
Jack.Hayes@dmjmharris.com
-
Contacted, but no response.
Kevin Hayes
khayes@ekmail.com
Completed survey
received.
Interview completed.
Knowledge Elucidation
• This step involves processing of expert knowledge in
order to clarify different aspects of the knowledge
acquired from the experts and other cited resources.
• The literature reviews, expert surveys, and interviews
provided significant information used in the development
of Intelligent Transportation Systems Inspection and
Maintenance Manual (ITSIMM).
• Results revealed the fact that there is a need for the
development of a software for performing inspection and
maintenance operations on a touch-screen tablet
notebook computer. Rutgers Intelligent Transportation
Systems
Inspection
and
Maintenance
Software
(RITSIMS) is created for this purpose.
Knowledge Representation
• This step is completed through the development of written material
including procedures, checklists, and guidelines using the expert
knowledge obtained and processes in the previous stages.
Knowledge Representation
• The ITS equipment is divided into five categories after the
expert surveys and interviews conducted.
Knowledge Representation
• ITSIMM is composed of three sections namely, inspection,
maintenance, and troubleshooting of five categories of
ITS equipment.
ITS Manual
Guidelines
Delivery
Inspection
(Acceptance)
Maintenance
(Preventive &
Routine)
Troubleshooting
Knowledge Representation - Inspection
Knowledge Representation – Inspection
• Inspections are designed to verify that the ITS equipment
and its components are in accordance with the quality
requirements of the specifications/plans.
• Inspection checklists are provided as general guides, and
should be used as supplements to, not replacements for
the contract specifications and specific installation
instructions of the product manufacturers and suppliers.
• Inspection procedures consist of checklists in the form of
Pass and Fail questions.
Knowledge Representation – Inspection
• Elements of inspection are given as:
 Pre-construction Phase: A simple pre-construction check
should serve for the purpose of making any field modifications to
the plans when necessary to fit site conditions.
 Basic ITS Elements: These include the inspection of conduits,
junction (pull) boxes, loop detectors, foundation, CCTV poles,
VMS sign supports and sign boxes, wiring and grounding, and the
communication/field equipment cabinets.
 Electric Service: The components associated with providing
electric service are: preconstruction electric service, service poles
and electrical feed, and load center and meter.
 Traffic Maintenance during Construction: A traffic control plan
should be properly implemented and revised if necessary to
conform to the prevailing field conditions.
Knowledge Representation –
Maintenance & Troubleshooting
Knowledge Representation – Maintenance
• ITS are often designed and installed with little attention to
•
the future maintenance requirements.
It is significant to perform maintenance procedures
effectively so that the costs incurred for providing
maintenance and training staff can be minimized. The
maintenance procedures are simply:
 Generic Preventive Maintenance: It is defined as a set of checks
and procedures to be performed at regularly scheduled intervals for
the upkeep of ITS system, including maintenance inspection,
record keeping, cleaning, and replacement based on the function
and rated service life of each component
 Part Specific Maintenance: Questions related to the equipment
common to all devices belong to this category.
 Brand Specific Maintenance: The second approach includes the
specific questions for different brands (Daktronics, Vultron, etc.).
Knowledge Representation – Maintenance
• With both approaches, tables in the form of checklists are
•
•
formed as an attempt by the research team to summarize
various approaches found in the literature.
In these checklists, a rating system has been applied on
the contrary to the inspection checklists as a result of the
stakeholder meetings.
Depending on the completion of the task, there are four
available ratings:
 Excellent: Totally Operative / New
 Good: Operative / Satisfactory
 Fair: Operative / Needs Minor Work
 Bad: Not Operative / Needs Major Work
Knowledge Representation – Troubleshooting
• It is always useful to have some common troubleshooting
measures which will help one to solve the problem that
appears during the maintenance checks.
• Since trying to find the problem and its solution can be
difficult and time consuming, the troubleshooting issue
has outmost importance for the efficiency of ITS systems.
• With this purpose, troubleshooting tables are prepared for
ITS devices that basically include some basic sample
problems/symptoms, their possible causes and remedial
actions for the mentioned equipment.
Validation and Verification of the Material
• Most of the information given in the manuals will be highly
technical and procedural, and therefore it is important to
verify and validate it very carefully before actually using it.
• Upon the development of various products including
ITSIMM, its checklists, the RITSIMS software, and the
training content, they are evaluated by the experts and its
developers to ensure their accuracy and appropriateness
for the tasks they are designed for.
• Therefore, during/after obtaining the draft version of the
ITS Inspection and Maintenance Manual (ITSIMM), the
manual is constantly revised by the experts from NJDOT,
private companies, and other state authorities.
Database Structure
Rutgers Intelligent Transportation
Systems Inspection and
Maintenance Software
(RITSIMS)
Work Flow and Structure
Functionalities
Printable PDF Version of the Manual:
At any time, the checklist questions for the
equipment can be printed after selecting it. This is
useful when a computer is not available for use in
the field.
Pausing:
This option is available for short-term and longterm pauses throughout the inspection and
maintenance procedures.
Functionalities
Database Synchronization:
The tables obtained during the inspection and
maintenance procedures in the field can be sent
to the master database which is located in the
main computer at the office. The synchronization
can be done both ways.
Installation Manual
• Rutgers ITS Inspection and Maintenance Software
(RITSIMS) is compatible with Windows 98/2000,
Windows XP and Windows Vista.
• Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 should be installed prior
to RITSIMS installation.
• The application can be started with clicking on the
MTSoft.exe file that is supplied in the RITSIMS folder.
• All the other database files (.mdb’s) are accessible in
the same folder.
RITSIMS Training
Training Sessions
• Four training sessions have been held on the dates
03.12.2008 and 03.13.2008 in the NJDOT Computer
Lab.
• 30 NJDOT personnel have attended the training
sessions.
• A brief introduction about the project has been given to
the attendees.
• The features of the software have been shown to the
attendees.
Training Sessions
• Two case studies for inspection and maintenance
procedures using RITSIMS have been given to the
attendees and they have successfully performed both
studies.
• Positive feedback have been received from the NJDOT
personnel.
• Comments of the attendees have been taken into
account and some changes have been implemented
into the software.
Training
Attendee
List
NAME
DEPARTMENT
Kennand R. Luckey
Construction North
John McEldowney
Construction North
Robert Nagy
Construction North
Robert Kohle
Construction North
Paul Shelly
NJDOT
Martin Schwan
NJDOT
Stanley McDowell
Construction Region Central
Hans P. Janssen
Construction Region Central
Joe Serenelli
Construction / Electrical Central
Randy Richline
Construction / Electrical Central
Thomas White
Inspection
George Carroll
NJDOT Central Region Construction
Ilya Slivenko
Construction Region Central
Paul Lynyak
Traffic Operations North
Rocco Picciolo
Construction Region South
Stephen Magazu
Construction Region South
Ray Morris
Construction Region South
John D’Ambre
Construction Region South
Wally Nunez
Traffic Operations North
Robert Hargrave
Traffic Operations North
Padmanabha Amin
DOT-ITS
Ramchandra Patel
DOT-ITS
Jeff Rockower
DOT-ITS
Tim Bourne
Traffic Operations
Lou Ranson
Traffic Operations South
Bryan Kepler
Traffic Operations South
William Brantley
Traffic Operations South
Keith Kirby
Traffic Operations South
Mark Renner
Traffic Operations South
Victoria Battaglia
DOT-ITS