Pontis®
Bridge Management System Version 4.5

Pontis® is a bridge management system that assists transportation agencies in managing bridge inventories and making decisions about preservation and functional improvements for their structures. Pontis stores complete bridge inventory and inspection data, including detailed element conditions; formulates network-wide preservation and improvement policies for use in evaluating the needs of each bridge in a network; makes project recommendations to derive maximum benefit from scarce funds; reports network- and project-level results; and forecasts individual bridge life-cycle deterioration and costs.

Pontis was first developed more than 10 years ago by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). It is licensed through the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) to more than 45 U.S. state departments of transportation (DOT) and other agencies nationally and internationally.

Benefits

• Offers comprehensive support for the entire bridge asset management cycle
• Helps agencies make sound, defensible, and repeatable investment decisions for their bridges
• Encourages a preservation approach by identifying a cost-minimizing strategy for preserving the bridge network and quantifying the impact of deferring needed maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation actions
• Enables agencies to comply with National Bridge Inventory (NBI) reporting and data validation requirements
• Provides agencies with a proven, cost-effective bridge management solution

What's New in Version 4.5

Pontis 4.5 adds a range of new features relative to previous versions of the product. The most significant changes for Pontis Version 4.5 are:

• Technology Upgrade – PowerBuilder 11.5, InfoMaker 11.5, and Sybase Database 11:
  Pontis 4.5 release updated the PowerBuilder Version 9 code in Pontis 4.x to the latest Version 11.5, Build 3127. With the PowerBuilder upgrade, users can now upgrade from InfoMaker 9 to InfoMaker 11.5, purchase current Sybase PowerBuilder and InfoMaker products, and upgrade the databases release with the system from Sybase SQL Anywhere 8 (which comes with InfoMaker 9) to SQL Anywhere 11. Please note that as of the latest version of the AASHTO Catalog (2009-2010), only Sybase SQL Anywhere 11 is supported officially. Older versions are unsupported but may still work.
• Alternate API Calls to C++ DLL: The first argument of the Pontis DLL functions passes the ODBC profile name of the Pontis database. In Pontis 4.4 and earlier versions, the user ID and password were either extracted from the Pontis INI file where they were stored in encrypted form or defaulted to Pontis/Pontis. In Pontis 4.5, it is now possible to pass as the first argument a specially constructed control string that contains not only the ODBC profile name of the database but also the user ID and password as well, along with the instruction of whether or not to show the display monitor window (progress indicator). It is still possible to pass the first argument in its old form, i.e. just the ODBC name of the database. This makes the Pontis 4.5 DLLs compatible with Pontis 4.4. This modification was done in order to avoid passing the authentication information via the INI file with possible encryption/decryption complications and to facilitate using the same functions with a web application while preserving backward compatibility.
• Calendar Picklist: All the date fields in Pontis 4.5 screens have a pop-up calendar picklist instead of the right-click Calendar option which has been deprecated. All scrolling date settings such as those in the Select Structures dialog have also been changed to use the pop-up calendar date picker. Any agency forms with date fields should be updated after migration to use the Calendar option for consistency. Also, the edit mask has been set to the Windows short date setting. The pop-up calendar date picklist setting can be found in the edit properties of each date field.

Features

Pontis supports the entire bridge asset management cycle, allowing user input at every stage of the process. Pontis advanced features include:

• Comprehensive inspection, preservation, project planning, and programming modules
• Flexible bridge data presentations, including a user-configurable bridge desktop offering a common access point to all Pontis modules
• Multimedia capability, supporting links to bridge and inspection photos and drawings
• Extensive end-user customization capabilities, including reporting, data management, and helper applets, as well as functionality for changing labels and help tags for all user interface controls
• Built-in support for the Microsoft® SQL Server®, Oracle®, and Sybase® Adaptive Server Anywhere® single or multi-user databases
• BRIDGEWare® integration, providing access to a common bridge database and capabilities of the Virtis® and Opis® systems (licensed separately from AASHTO)
• Comprehensive on-line help, user manual, technical manual, and other support resources

How Can You Obtain Pontis?

Pontis is licensed by AASHTO to more than 45 state DOTs and other agencies nationally and internationally. To obtain an evaluation copy of Pontis, please contact the AASHTO product office at http://aashtoware.org.

With a worldwide reputation for leadership in developing effective transportation asset management solutions, Cambridge Systematics has worked with many agencies to customize Pontis to specific needs, and to improve existing asset maintenance and capital improvement practices.

Pontis, the Pontis logo, BRIDGEWare, Virtis, and Opis are registered trademarks of AASHTO.