Featured Project: Transportation Department Saves Time with Unique Application of Spike by ikeGPS

New Zealand-based ikeGPS, makers of Spike, a laser-based measuring tool that allows sign makers to accurately take dimensions on a potential job site using their smartphone or tablet, announces a different kind of use for its product.

The company’s Spike technology has been integrated into a mobile app called Survey123 for ArcGIS, which was developed by Esri, a creator of geographic information system (GIS) software.

The Survey123 app with Spike integration is being used by the Colorado Department of Transportation to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes the agency to take inventory of its signage. The initial CDOT project was an inventory project where it needed to measure more an 2,000 signs. According to Roberto Avila, CDOT’s GIS applications and  data services unit manager, undertaking such a project the old way-using laptops and pen and paper-would literally have taken the agency months. By switching to tablets equipped with Spike and Survey123, the inventory collection times went “from months to minutes.”

“We deployed Spike with the Survey123 for ArcGIS app to measure and collect the dimension of objects, such as our signage and facilities,” Avila says. “Using Spike and Survey123 with our iPads reduces time in the field spent collecting assets, and is not only easy to operate, but highly efficient for data collection.”

Today, CDOT has more than 25 Spike units deployed in the field with tablets and Survey123, and plan for a larger rollout in the near future. Field teams are also using Spike for other projects, including facilities management and environmental quality.