W.E.C. Engineers, Inc. serves as the Geographic Information System (GIS) Consultant for this proposed 28-mile toll road near Pittsburgh, PA. As part of the Transportation Project Development Process, an inventory of environmental, social, economic, and geologic features for the 108 square mile study area was conducted utilizing GIS. This GIS analysis was an integral part of the preliminary design process. Subsequently, the GIS will be used as a facility and road management tool

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Six different engineering/geo-technical firms provided W.E.C. with paper map products depicting various geological and environmental features. These maps were of varying scales, projection, type and integrity. W.E.C. produced 71 registered, consistent ARC/INFO coverage and then produced full color thematic and resultant maps at scales of 1" = 1500’ and 1" = 2500". The featured maps included:

• Natural Resources

• Cultural Resources

• Land Cover

• Geo-Technical Data

  Southern Beltway Transportation Project

• Existing Structures

• Utilities

• Existing Land Uses

• Future Land Uses

W.E.C. compiled and analyzed all the data sets using ARC/INFO to produce the "Socio-Environmental Feature" map, a composite map of resources and construction constraints for highway design. In addition, W.E.C. assisted in the quantification of environmental impacts for the alternative routes that were proposed. Upon completion of the coverage development process, W.E.C. produced a White Paper setting forth the standards for coverage development in future transportation projects.

W.E.C. is also the design component of the team and prepared the EIS from I-79 to S.R. 22. The subsequent corridor locations were developed from the "Socio-Environmental Feature" map and presented to the Environmental Agencies for review. This approach to establishing candidate corridor locations was credited with a time savings of approximately 1½ years of review of numerous hard copy environmental constraint maps.