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ReNew Canada_MayJune2022_Metrolinx_InfrastructureOntario

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Transit the Building Transit Faster Act (BTFA), pass very quickly in 2020, because MPs knew it would save both time and money on these huge projects. The legislation puts some backstops into negotiations with utilities, as it made it mandatory for the utilities to provide accurate data to the Crown agencies. This must be, as Reynolds says, "data that we've seen and located," before design of the transit begins. And those designers are now required to use the same data. Contracts are fixed and immutable. No one can hold up the process by asking for more money to complete their information, their contribution to the project. The legislation also empowered Metrolinx to access municipal rights of way. This would provide more certainty for the businesses affected and firm budgets for tax and ratepayers. Collins and Reynolds developed Utility Conflict Management (UCM) practices to identify and resolve conflicts and the Office of Utility Coordination (OUC) to do the same with third-party utilities. Collins wanted to prevent the usual situation where, as he says, "we are last to know and first to have to deliver." A long-time advocate of knowing all the constraining parameters before any designs start and long before construction, he argues that "for every dollar spent on SUE (Subsurface Utility Engineering) investigation, you save six that you'd spend dealing with problems you find in the field." The confusions that slow things down are endless, ranging from the simple—two organizations using different words for the same thing—to the complex incompatible data. And confusions make a clear plan almost impossible. The former is partly solved by building in regular meetings to discuss hurdles, which encourages transparency and promotes reliability. They chose Esri's geographic information system, ArcGIS, to address the latter. Esri's ArcGIS system played a critical role as it uses location to integrate different data types and sources from multiple organizations into a cohesive view that can be easily shared among stakeholders. As Brian Bell, director of utilities at Esri Canada says, "For large, multi-organization infrastructure builds, it is critical that asset and planning data is available through a centralized hub, unifying information access for multi- agency stakeholders through common views, supporting critical and complex decision- making." Using ArcGIS, they can track, monitor and manage BTFA compliance "The confusions that slow things down are endless, ranging from the simple—two organizations using different words for the same thing—to the complex incompatible data." Credit: Metrolinx Esri Canada helped to streamline the process of coordinating utilities for some of Metrolinx's large transit delivery projects, using improved data- driven decision making and communication May/June 2022 ReNew Canada 35

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