TransXML: Establishing Standards For Transportation Data Exchange
Paul Scarponcini · Proceedings of the Joint CIB W78, W102, ICCCBE, ICCC, and DMUCE International Conference on Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering, Montreal, Canada, 14-16 June · 2006
The objectives of the TransXML project are to develop standard, public domain XML schemas for the exchange of transportation data in four initial business areas. The Survey / Roadway Design schema areas address geometric roadway design, area features, and contract pay items. The Transportation Construction / Materials business area covers bid package, project construction status, construction progress, and materials sampling and testing. The Highway Bridge Structures business area focuses on bridge design and analysis. The Transportation Safety area addresses crash records and highway safety information analysis. The Geography Mark-Up Language (GML) was selected for evaluation as a common framework. Its enterprise-wide feature-based approach proved advantageous in spite of the initial TransXML schema focus on engineering design and construction and GML’s origin in the geospatial domain UML models were created to garner consensus on data content and structure prior to XML schema development. Models were publicly posted for comment and the models were updated accordingly. GML was generated for eight schema. Sample schemas and instance documents were created and posted for review to a public web site. Sample applications have been developed to demonstrate the applicability of the resulting schemas.