AXIAM Awards 2022: Meet the Winners

Minnesota DOT took the top prize in a contest decided by peer votes.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Asset Management Project Office won first place in the 2022 AXIAM Awards, a competition to recognize organizations that demonstrate innovative and effective uses of AgileAssets solutions to meet infrastructure challenges. 

Presented at Xchange 2022—AgileAssets’ global user event in Austin, Texas—MnDOT’s winning nomination conveyed how the agency has achieved numerous operational improvements using the AgileAssets solution to manage roadway asset inventory, inspections, and work planning. 

A Maintenance “Fairytale” Comes True

Trisha Stefanski, PE, Asset Management Engineer at MnDOT, presented the nomination on behalf of the DOT’s Asset Management Program Office, using a storytelling style of narration. “Once upon a time…,” she began, and explained how MnDOT had overcome previous operational issues by training maintenance employees to track work activities and related labor, equipment, and materials, enabling data-driven decisions about how best to meet performance targets.

As part of the improvement process, MnDOT developed performance measures for multiple maintenance activities based on defined levels of service and maintenance expenditures. Then, using the AgileAssets maintenance management solution to analyze relevant work data against the performance metrics, the MnDOT team was able to adjust their operations and achieve the following results:

• Performing scenario planning based on budget, available staff, and other constraints to optimize maintenance work 
• Eliminating multiple spreadsheets that calculated traffic barrier repair time frames, saving employee time and providing increased data accuracy  
• Eliminating complex GIS models that spatially joined pavement condition data to maintenance work order data, identifying completed projects and gaps, saving employee time
• Allowing truck station supervisors to plan for next-season crack and heavy patching needs by clicking on a button vs. trying to search through various maps and reports, saving employee time and increasing trust in the system 
• Allowing supervisors to see individual culvert inspection needs aggregated and displayed in the system and plan next-season resources to work on the required projects, saving employee time

All these improvements culminated in the “happy ending” of MnDOT’s maintenance story, which moved Xchange attendees—nearly 200 transportation professionals from 10 countries—to vote for Minnesota’s initiative as the winning AXIAM entry.

A Close Race of AXIAM Award Contenders

Voting for the prestigious AXIAM Awards—short for AgileAssets Excellence in Infrastructure Asset Management Awards—was based on three criteria applied to the nominated initiatives:

• Most innovative – Demonstrating creative problem solving 
• Most impactful – Demonstrating the best results 
• Most influential – Inspiring other organizations to follow suit

The anonymous online voting by industry peers in real time at Xchange returned close results, with the four other nominees earning just a handful of votes short of the winning count.

Vinci Airports Takes Pavement Management to New Heights

Coming in at second place was Vinci Airports, a global airport operator that has implemented the AgileAssets solution to manage and maintain airfield pavements at more than 15 airport facilities on six continents.

Paula Lan, Pavement Engineer at Vinci Airports, presented the AXIAM initiative involving the deployment of a specially configured AgileAssets solution that comprises the Pavement Analyst™ and Maintenance Manager™ web applications along with the Work Manager™ mobile application—all operating in multiple languages to meet the needs of users across the globe. Applying AgileAssets’ advanced analytical capabilities, Vinci Airports is able to improve the efficiency, timing, and cost-effectiveness of its planning and maintenance operations for runways, taxiways, and aircraft parking lots. 

In addition, the integrated AgileAssets solution provides Vinci Airports with a single source of pavement data and connects workflows to streamline the planning, management, preservation, and maintenance of pavement assets across their entire lifecycle. These improved processes result in higher-performing pavements that help ensure airline passenger safety and mobility.

Other AXIAM Participants Demonstrate Excellence

The other AXIAM nominees included the departments of transportation (DOTs) of New Mexico, New York State, and Texas, each presenting initiatives that reflect notable achievements and performance improvements. 

New Mexico DOT’s nominated initiative consisted of solving problems and improving efficiency using the capabilities of the AgileAssets Resident Client Success Manager (RCSM), an on-site resource providing day-to-day support for the AgileAssets solution and its users. 

Phillip Montoya, New Mexico DOT’s Asset Management Bureau Chief, explained how the AgileAssets RCSM has been able to:

• Reduce bug resolution time for AgileAssets applications by 60%
• Increase the number of system-managed projects completed by a factor of 5
• Implement 61 solution enhancements

As a result of these improvements, New Mexico calculates the benefit-cost ratio of the RCSM to be 2.5:1 to 3:1, a return on investment of 250% to 300%.

New York State DOT’s AXIAM initiative involved replacing outdated legacy systems with an AgileAssets enterprise solution comprising integrated maintenance, sign, and facilities management applications for more than 1,500 users across 10 regions statewide.

As explained by Lubov Koptsev, Assistant Engineer at New York State DOT, having an integrated solution enables connected workflows that improve efficiency and reduce operational costs. For New York State DOT, the AgileAssets enterprise solution has supported the following achievements: 

• Integrated regional planning for Maintenance and Signals teams allows for more effective annual budget projections 
• Manual, spreadsheet-driven equipment tests and repairs are now managed through digitized workflows, resulting in time savings and increased data accuracy     
• Robust reporting capabilities enable more efficient Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) fund recovery related to weather events such as storms and hurricanes 

In addition, the methodology that New York State DOT followed when implementing the AgileAssets solution incorporated innovative practices such as iterative, agile software development processes and incremental user acceptance testing, which helped ensure a smooth deployment and successful outcomes.

Another longtime AgileAssets client, Texas DOT presented an AXIAM initiative consisting of implementing numerous enhancements of its AgileAssets Pavement Analyst solution. These enhancements, in turn, have led to several significant performance improvements.

For example, the Texas DOT pavement management team is now able to:

• Use a customized tool to support the annual statewide 4-year pavement plan to provide districts with flexibility in performance prediction and funding allocation, including a benefit-cost ratio analysis tool to assist districts with project ranking and selection
• Incorporate specific performance models to support meeting MAP-21 requirements
• Use a remaining service life analysis tool to support pavement asset valuation analysis
• Upload and display construction and work history data from multiple sources, enabling better decision-making by providing greater visibility into asset condition over time 
• Identify data anomalies at both the network and the project level and display the delta between distresses/scores of consecutive years in various formats, improving the accuracy of the analysis 

As a result of these system-enabled improvements, Texas DOT has replaced many manual workflows with automated processes that not only save time, but also increase the repeatability and reliability of critical functions. The DOT’s districts and divisions are able to conduct more robust analysis, make better-informed decisions, and meet their compliance goals and performance targets for pavement management.

Learn More

For more examples of how AgileAssets customers are improving efficiency and performance while solving complex infrastructure management problems, view our client Case Studies and other resources on AgileAssets.com

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