Using GPS to Improve Data Collection on the Prairie Waters Pipeline

The City of Aurora, Colorado provides high quality water to over 300,000 people. The Prairie Waters Project is a key element of Aurora's plan for a future water supply. When completed in 2010, this project will collect water from the South Platte River and deliver to a new treatment facility. The conveyance portion of this project is comprised of over 34 miles of 60-inch diameter welded steel pipe and three pumping stations, which will deliver over 50 million gallons of water per day to the treatment facility. The pipeline has been divided into 3 bid packages, with construction which started in early 2008 on the first 9-mile segment. The remaining sections of the pipeline started construction in mid 2008, with completion scheduled for mid 2010. As part of Aurora Water's Asset Management program, emphasis has been placed on collecting correct and comprehensive as-built data to be incorporated into the Geographical Information System (GIS). To ease data collection efforts, Aurora Water uses handheld GPS units requiring pipeline inspectors to collect data as the pipeline is being constructed. This paper presents data collection, quality assurance, equipment and methods used to deliver accurate GIS information to the Aurora Water Asset Management System. Data collectors with sub-meter GPS capability are used to input data and locate physical features during pipeline installation. GIS Dynamic Segmentation is used to model the pipe segments and data assigned using a core ESRI APDM data model. As-built variations in the design drawings will be adjusted in the GIS and noted in the project report.