User's Guide

Oregon 58 Conditions Report

Introduction

The Oregon 58 Conditions Report was developed for the Oregon Department of Transportation. The electronic report is a compendium of information about the highway between mile posts 0 and 86. The conditions report provides an assortment of information about the corridor in variety of formats including text, and video. It is intended to provide a simple way to access the large volume of information contained in the report using a web browser.

The electronic report interface was created using HyperText Markup Language (HTML), JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). All of the report content (text and tables) is provided in HTML format. Maps and related graphics are provided in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), a universal file format that preserves all the fonts, formatting, graphics, and color of a source file, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. Adobe PDF files are compact and can be exchanged, viewed, navigated, and printed by anyone with free Adobe Reader software. In addition to the typical "printed" report elements, users have access to drive through video by direction and associated data. Navigation to all content is handled via a web browser enabling the user to easily jump from mainline segment chapter to map to video and back. The report itself can be stored and accessed by a single user on an individual computer, by multiple users via storage on an internal network (LAN) or Intranet or directly from the Internet using the appropriate URL

The size of this report is huge. With appendices, there are hundreds of pages of information, excluding the video and mapping data. Consequently, it is recommended that you do not attempt to print a full hard copy, although individual pages, maps, or discrete sections can easily be printed, as needed, using your web browser or Adobe Acrobat print commands.

Using the Online Conditions Report

The home page menu contains four navigation options specified as:

1. Acknowledgements
2. Table of Contents / Segment Index
3. User's Guide
4. Links

All the navigation topics are linked. Click on the link to go to the page.

Acknowledgements

The acknowledgements page recognizes members of the project team and other contributors responsible for producing the Oregon 58 Conditions Report.

Segment Index / Table of Contents

The segment index serves as the table of contents and provides navigation to all of the report content. Click here to visit the segment index page.

The index page provides the user with direct access to report chapters, maps for the mainline and/or specific intersections as well as the video. Please refer to the Video Clips section of the User's Guide for specific details on accessing this content. To access specific content, simply use your mouse to select (click) the desired content radio button for maps, text, or video. The graphis below displays mainline text segments available when the radio button is activated.

Table content varies depending on the radio button selected. After selecting the desired content, the user is transferred to a new page displaying the selected content.

Maps

How to use the maps section
Readers have the option to select from 12 unique map themes. Each of the segment titles are hyperlinked to a pop-up window where the reader can find more information about the map theme content including map legends and metadata documentation. To access individual maps, the reader clicks on the radio button next to the theme title and a list of the maps will appear below organized by mile point. The mile point index changes depending on which map theme has been selected. The individual MPs in the maps table are hyperlinked and will take the users to the appropriate map.

How to view the maps
Once the user clicks on a milepost range in the maps table (e.g. MP 0-5), the user will be taken to the next page where the map is displayed. All of the maps have been converted into Portable Document Format (PDF) to reduce the download time. Adobe Reader® software is required to view these maps. The detailed map page is divided into two frames: map section (top frame) and the navigation section (bottom frame). Once the map is open, the user can use all the functionalities of Adobe Reader® such as, printing, zooming, mailing the map, etc. The map should open in the top frame with a report navigation menu in the bottom frame. If the map (in PDF form) opens in a separate browser window, refer to this Knowledge Base article on how to open the PDF map in the same window. Below is an example of the new window that is opened after selecting a map from the index list.

Note: An interactive map reader application is provided with the standalone version of the report. Use the "Feedback" link on the main page to send an email request to ODOT for a DVD copy of the report that includes the map reader.

Text

The text section of the report is divided into four main sections: Mainline Conditions, Intersection Conditions, Background, and Planning Document Review. The mainline segment reports describe a variety of information for roadway sections within the segment. The intersection conditions text is focused on the conditions and characteristics at the intersection location.

Upon selecting the radio button next to the Mainline or Intersection title, a complete list of the mainline segments or intersection locations will display below. Selecting (clicking) on a segment or intersection name will transfer the user to a new page with the respective report content. The graphic below shows an example of a mainline text report.

The Background radio button provides access to the following report content: Preface, Acknowledgments and the Executive Summary. The Planning Document Review radio button opens the section containing a summary of relevant planning documents in the corridor.

Video

ODOT’s Digital Video Log has been used to create video clips of the corridor as driven in both directions. The Road Inventory and Classification Services Unit of the Transportation Development Division http://www.odot.state.or.us/tddtrandata/rics/rics.htm is responsible for the State Highway Video Log. The video clips are provided as Audio/Video Interleave (AVI) files. The AVI file format defined by Microsoft is the most widely used audio/video format on Windows platforms. In order to view the AVI files a media player is required, see Media Player for information on accessing the report’s video content.

How to use the video section
Within the Video - DVL section of the Segment Index page, the user can choose either the "East" or "West" radio button. The East section includes video clips of the corridor traveling eastbound and the West section includes video clips traveling westbound. Upon the selection of a radio button, a list of videos is displayed below. The videos have been created in five mile increments along the highway. Once the user selects a desired video, the user is taken to the next page that is divided into two frames. The video will be displayed within an HTML page in the top frame and the navigation will be displayed on the bottom frame.

NOTE: If accessing from the Internet, since the video files are large and not streamed, the user will have to wait until the video is completely downloaded. Once the video has been downloaded, the video can be viewed. Below is a sample of a video clip that appears in the web browser once selected.

Navigation

Selecting links in the navigation frame allow the user to move between content in the related section (i.e. table of contents grouping), back to the index page and back to the home page.