Municipal infrastructure quickstart
Set up AssetLab for linear assets - model your networks, bring in GIS data from Esri, and stand up level-of-service tracking.
This guide is for municipalities and utilities managing linear infrastructure - roads, water, sanitary and storm sewers, sidewalks, streetlights. It uses the Infrastructure module; the facilities quickstart covers vertical assets like arenas and fire halls, and both can run side by side in one organization.
1. Model your networks
Open Infrastructure → Networks and create one network per service area of responsibility:
- Roads
- Water distribution
- Sanitary sewer
- Storm sewer
A network is the container for everything below it - its feature classes, features, and map layers.
2. Define feature classes
Within each network, define feature classes - the kinds of things you manage. For a water network that might be:
| Feature class | Geometry | Example unit rate |
|---|---|---|
| Watermain | Line | $ per metre |
| Hydrant | Point | $ each |
| Valve | Point | $ each |
| Service connection | Line | $ per metre |
Feature classes carry the defaults that make valuation work: expected useful life, unit replacement rate, and the attribute schema for their features. Details: Networks & feature classes.
3. Bring in your GIS data
If your data lives in ArcGIS, don't re-enter it. Infrastructure → Import connects to an Esri feature service, maps its layers and fields onto your feature classes, and keeps AssetLab in sync on a schedule - geometry included. See Esri & GIS sync.
No GIS? Import from spreadsheets with the import wizard, or digitize directly on the map.
4. Verify on the map
Open Infrastructure → Map. Your features render on the basemap, colored by condition or class. Spot-check a few segments: click one, confirm the attributes, length, and replacement value look right. Valuation errors are cheapest to catch now, before reports go out.
5. Organize with zones, routes, and corridors
Three optional overlays make a large network manageable:
- Zones - geographic areas (wards, pressure zones, plow districts).
- Routes - ordered sequences of road segments for programmed work.
- Corridors - cross-network bundles (the road, the watermain under it, the sewer beside it) so you can plan one dig instead of three.
See Zones, routes & corridors.
6. Stand up level of service
Level of Service turns council-facing commitments into measurable targets: create a service area (e.g. "Winter Roads"), add measures ("% of priority routes cleared within 8h"), set targets, and record measurements over time. See Level of service.
7. Run operations
From here the CMMS loop is identical to facilities: inspections and work orders against features, PM schedules for recurring programs (flushing, sweeping, CCTV), and costs accruing to each feature's history.
Where to go next
- Features - the linear-asset record in full.
- Risk & FCI - condition-driven planning across the whole portfolio.
- Replacement planner - turn aging segments into funded capital programs.