The Idaho Transportation Department Standardized Workflows and Increased Productivity Using a GIS-Powered Online Permitting Application

Every year across its six districts, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) must handle somewhere between 1,500–2,000 applications for access or encroachment onto the state highway system. With each of the districts processing permit applications in their own unique ways, it was difficult to track how many of these were being processed annually. Typical information required includes the types of permits being sought (access, utilities, or special events), in which districts they're being sought, and their precise locations. While it was already recognized that ITD's paper-based environment was prone to applications being misplaced or deadlines missed, it was the looming permits required for the roll out of 5G that brought the issue to a head.  ITD staff decided they needed a system that could not only handle the permit applications but the entire workflow, including taking payments and archiving permits. In short, they decided that geographic information system (GIS) technology would be an ideal solution.  “We just needed to get more efficient and reduce the number of touch points,” said Damon Allen, district engineer, North Idaho, and project sponsor. “That meant getting the permit applicants involved right up front as much as we possibly could, by providing them with as much information as we could. Then, we needed to be able to track the processes which are codified in state law.” By having all the districts do things in the same way, it would then be possible to access permit and status information from any computer in the state.  Additionally, there was a desire for the ability to handle all the payment processes from within the application.
 

Moving off paper and spreadsheets meant that, from the applicant’s perspective, the process would be more transparent and streamlined, as the applicant would be providing more of the initial information—removing a source of error and bringing greater traceability (and accountability) to the process. 

A key part of getting that first part of the workflow right, according to Rob Beachler, program manager, District 1, was to speak to ITD’s frontline personnel—the people who were asking for the capabilities that the application would provide. In an already complex environment, it would not be unusual, for instance, to receive a permit application with engineering drawings but no appropriate traffic control plan. Or an application would have a delayed payment, either of which would stop the permit process. ITD wanted a fully transparent process where everyone would be able to see the current status of an application, along with a dashboard to enable senior leadership to see the real-time state of events. A survey of off-the-shelf permitting solutions led to the conclusion that ITD’s existing platform, ArcGIS Enterprise, could provide what was needed without having to procure additional servers or licenses with an additional software vendor.

The Esri development team, Beachler said, did an “excellent job” of outreach and requirements analysis with ITD’s frontline staff.
 

All six districts used the same encroachment permit forms, but beyond that, processing and tracking varied widely. With six different workflows, there was a lot of negotiation to reach a consensus on what was actually needed to satisfy each of the distinct teams. Probably the biggest internal challenge, shares Allen, was always going to be to get everyone to agree on best standard practice. 

“I’d have clients saying to me, ‘Why do you need this information? Districts 2 and 6 don’t ask for what you’re asking for,’” said Shona Tonkin, permit coordinator at District 3. “We needed to get people on the same page in terms of what was wanted or necessary, and we also had to make people realize the importance of permits. There’s often an attitude that they’re no big deal, but in many ways they’re the hub of transportation services.”

A lot of time was taken early on to understand the aspects of the project centered around people and their specific needs, according to Esri platform engineer Derek Hoshijo.

“We looked at all the user personas and what their needs were—what decisions they need to make, and what supporting documentation they need,” said Hoshijo. “We actually developed some nice swim lanes for each process; requesting a permit application, researching the application, supplemental material, and so on. With input from the districts, we brought all that together in a standardized solution which is still flexible enough to allow different reviewers to come in and out of processes as they need to.” 

Online payments, meanwhile, were handled by another agency with the state, and there was a concerted push to have this brought within the purview of the application in order to make it a fully successful implementation. “Otherwise,” Beachler explained, “you’d be going through all the online application stuff and putting a pin in the map on where you want to request a permit, only to then have to walk in with a check or call up with your credit card details.” 

With payments now rolled into the suite, the result is that there are now far fewer walk-ins at the district office level.

Close collaboration between the ITD and Esri teams resulted in an application that was available in a beta test version in just three to six months. A year on, GIS has proven to be a very powerful tool and the development team has built a very robust database schema that allows ITD to track things more completely.

“At the front end, we’ve created a landing page that has removed a lot of the back-and-forth with the permit coordinators over the types of permits needed,” said Beachler. “So, I’m a onetime applicant looking for residential access onto the state highway? The landing page describes to me the different types of permits and gives background information. It then guides me to the specific forms I need.”

The information now being captured in the database means that other front-end activities are fully supported.

“We’ve recognized that we have different types of customers,” Beachler continued. “There will still be those who want to walk into an office and present an application in hand. Well, they can print off the forms and do that. At the same time, if I’m a utility company that’s applying for multiple permits each week, being able to do everything online saves a lot of time and effort.”
 

Additionally, any access permit application must be considered in the context of others nearby—how many, and how old.

“If a district initially rejects an application and it’s appealed to my level, my research is only going to be as good as the information in previous permit applications,” said Allen. “That could mean days of searching through cabinets and looking at right-of-way plans and Excel spreadsheets. Now, we have a resource that will provide that information through one source that covers the whole state.”

Because the application has only recently been implemented, data migration of the older permits is still ongoing. The first, most important step was to create a standardized solution that everyone could agree upon, and then it fell to each district to migrate their legacy permits into the new system. As that process progresses, Allen notes, the true value to the executive team will be realized.

Tonkin describes her customers as being very happy with the new setup. “I have one utility customer who actually asked me to slow down, as she’s not used to the speed at which we can now process applications,” said Tonkin. “We also have greater transparency; I had one utility company president call me and ask why, after several months, he wasn’t getting any responses to his permit applications. Very quickly, I was able to go into a different district and explain to him that his applications hadn’t been submitted. He’d been blaming ITD for something that they hadn’t done at their end, and the new system helped to clear up a big problem.” 

 

Mary Ellen Russell, permit coordinator, District 4, echoed these sentiments. The retirement in her district of the previous permit coordinator resulted in a reorganization and the formation of a permit committee. This involves traffic engineers, the operations manager, the right-of-way agent, and planners. Being able to share information online enables the various committee members to react very quickly with signoffs, or changes or suggestions of how to make applications work better.

“People are also very appreciative of the online payment,” continued Tonkin. “Permits are good for a year and in a large, multiyear development where construction schedules can shift, not having to constantly come in and make manual payments . . . people are, like, ‘Man, this is great.’”

But perhaps the biggest indicator of success comes from outside the agency.

“Since going live, we’ve had something like 1.6 million interactions with the application,” said Beachler. “That comes back to the point Damon made about touch points. An interaction is any request going back and forth between a client device and ITD’s server services, so it’s any time a user pans and zooms, makes a filter selection, or clicks to submit a permit. A lot of insight has come from ArcGIS Monitor, and we’ve been blown away by the levels of activity we’re seeing. It provides a real contrast with something we were doing much slower with paper-type permit applications.”