The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), in its continuing efforts to more fully and effectively use advanced information technology tools to increase institutional productivity and effectiveness in managing its transportation infrastructure, embarked on a study that involved developing a comprehensive and unified enterprise-wide information management system. This paper focuses on the issues and needs that emerged as the information system development study evolved. Those became so significant that they warranted a detailed analysis in and of themselves. It is these issues and needs, which have a degree of universality, that are reported herein. The paper first introduces and discusses the functions of various participating units at State DOTs (referred to as stakeholders). Then, the paper identifies the issues and needs that must be fully understood and considered in the development of a unified information management system.

Linear referencing system (LRS) structures have been utilized by transportation agencies for many years to locate and graphically display data collected along linear features such as roads, railroads, and transit lines. Strategies for implementing a real-world LRS have always been dependent upon technical organizational and cost factors. Large transportation agencies such as state DOT's are developing more sophisticated tools to support analysis of LRS-related information. Among these are GIS-related display and analysis methods and database storage and manipulation systems. An increasingly common desire is for such agencies to link data in an enterprise system that can support efficient, effective management and retrieval and analysis using GIS. A continuing project at the North Carolina Department of Transportation involves design and implementation of an unified enterprise LRS solution to promote data sharing, reduction of redundant data, enhanced GIS capabilities, and development of state of the art data management structures and tools. The project includes several units in the Statewide Planning Branch that have not traditionally been able to share LRS data effectively. The LRS model being implemented incorporates ARC/INFO GIS software and Oracle database management software to provide a solution to this problem. Sufficient flexibility in system design is also being included to promote data sharing with external agencies such as MPO's, counties, and municipalities. This paper reviews the experience of the authors during design and implementation process at NCDOT.