CASE STUDY
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
KEEPING PARKS CLEAN WITH SMART TECHNOLOGY With Cityworks, ArcGIS, and the Bigbelly smart waste system, the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, has streamlined their workflow while ensuring that their parks are clean and enjoyable. BY LINDSAY FERGUSON, CITYWORKS CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
T
he City of Raleigh takes a very GIS-centric approach to asset management. “If it’s in ArcGIS Online, it’s in Cityworks,” explains Chad Foley, enterprise application engineer at the City of Raleigh. Most recently, the city expanded its deployment of the Cityworks mobile native app—together with Bigbelly smart waste bins—to help the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department (PRCR) manage the care of more than 200
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CITYWORKS MAGAZINE | FALL 2020
Pop. Served: 458,880 Depts. Using Cityworks: City Manager’s Office; Development Services; Engineering Services; Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources; Public Utilities; Solid Waste Services; Transportation Staff Using Cityworks: 1,100 User Since: 2007
parks covering more than 10,000 acres of green space.
THE CHALLENGE Unlike building systems, which typically have good industry data on average costs per square foot, grounds maintenance costs are often highly subjective. “For instance, how much does it cost yearly to maintain a 50-acre park? There’s just no consistent, reliable data on that,” explains Ivan Dickey, superintendent of PRCR.
“We needed a system that would track what it costs us to maintain these types of properties so we could improve our annual budgets and planning.” After the initial implementation of Cityworks, PRCR continued to rely on legacy processes. Field crews completed paper work orders and came back to the office