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Posted by: rjrobinson@dot.state.nc.us	8/13/2007
CURRENT AND PROPOSED ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES: Controlling Blowing Snow - Snow Drift Profiler The WYDOT Snow Drift Profiler tool is a Visual Basic Application (VBA) tool which requires both MicroStation and GEOPAK V8 to perform snow drift profile modeling on existing and proposed road cross sections. This tool does not design snow fence systems. The purpose of this tool is to develop snow drift profiles to visually indicate where snow drifts may occur in relation to existing or design cross sections. This tool can show drift profiles with existing ground cross sections only, or can show drift profiles with a combination of existing ground cross sections, proposed design cross sections and a single snow fence. This tool will run using English or Metric working units. The resulting drift profiles will be existing terrain drift profiles and a snow fence drift profile if a snow fence is being reviewed. The snow fence drift profile will be the equilibrium or maximum drift size upwind and downwind of the snow fence. By entering a local snowfall water-equivalent value, a fetch distance and a relocation coefficient, this tool will place an arrow on the equilibrium drift to indicate where the probable end of drift may result. The probable end of drift is where the snow drift will most likely end in relation to the information entered by the user and the terrain data available on that specific cross section. The probable end of drift is the “average” drift size for the given information; the probable end of drift arrow does not indicate this is the exact end of drift location if a snow fence is used in the proposed location. NEW APPLICATIONS: WY@ERP The Wyoming Department of Transportation, in cooperation with PeopleSoft and AgileAssets, completed development of the WY@ERP (Wyoming Enterprise Resource Planning) system. It was implemented in July 2006. Our goal was to implement a computer system which fully integrates financial information and assets. Work is underway to permit querying and presenting data through a geographic information system (GIS). The system has been designed to eliminate redundant data entry and as much manual processing as possible in general ledger, accounts receivable, billing, accounts payable, asset management, project costing, contract administration, grants, budgeting, purchasing, human resources, time and labor and payroll. The system allows the Department to manage its assets by analyzing their condition (or level of service) and reporting on both the condition and attributes of these assets. It places process “ownership” in the hands of those most directly involved. BRASS Work continues on merging BRASS-GIRDER™ and BRASS-GIRDER(LRFD)™ into a single application which will eliminate the need to maintain two sets of software (Load Factor Design and LRFD) which perform many of the same tasks such as section properties determination, dead and live load computations, certain Specification checks, etc.) This new software will allow the user to define a bridge once and perform either LFD or LRFD computations with a click of a button. The user interface for common parameters and steel girder definition has been completed and is undergoing beta testing. We hope to release this steel girder beta version to the BRASS community in May 2007. The BRASS-POLE™ program was completely redesigned and conforms to the latest AASHTO specifications. BRASS-SPLICE™ was enhanced to include a splice design using the AASHTO Load Resistance Factor and Design (LRFD) Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges. After considerable verification testing on both of these programs, they were released to the BRASS users. RECORD OF EXCHANGE BRASS The Bridge Rating and Analysis of Structural Systems (BRASS) suite of computer programs was distributed as either stand alone programs or as the analysis engines in AASHTO’s BridgeWare Virtis® and Opis® programs to 38 State DOTs (including Puerto Rico), 149 consulting firms, 16 Federal Highway Administration offices, 25 Army Corps of Engineers offices, 8 city and county transportation offices, 3 universities, and one Canadian province for a total of 241 users nationwide. INFORMATION WANTED None at this time.
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