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State DOT — Engineering Automation, Integration & Customization and Services Division
How a State DOT brings siloed data into one map-first view with Voyager
How a State Department of Transportation replaced identifier-driven, system-by-system search with one map-first view of its engineering, construction and enterprise content.
Keeping roads moving starts with finding the right information
A State DOT plans, builds, maintains and operates roads, bridges, highways and traffic systems. That work depends on a large and constantly growing volume of engineering, construction and infrastructure data. That data sits across several content management systems, each holding a different piece of the puzzle. As volume grows, the challenge stops being about collecting data and becomes about finding the right information fast enough to decide with confidence. When cross-referencing takes hours instead of minutes, the cost shows up in the field: slower repairs, slower emergency response, and institutional knowledge that walks out the door with whoever knew which system held what. Voyager has seen this at larger scale at California’s DOT, with 22,000+ staff across 12 districts, where people sometimes spent weeks searching for, or recreating, data that already existed.
The challenge: Data had a location. Search didn’t.
Decades of bridge inspections, pavement surveys, construction drawings and maintenance records live in systems bought years apart, by different divisions, for different jobs. None of them were built to talk to each other. Repair priorities, storm response, budget requests and audits all depend on records that live in different systems, often described by people who have since left the agency. Disconnected silos: finding anything meant knowing the exact document identifier and searching each system one at a time, even for routine cost analysis or fieldwork preparation. Spatial data, no spatial search: every record is tied to a real location, yet teams couldn’t see their own data on a map. Where is this asset? What else is nearby? The tools had no concept of place. Separate access control: unifying search meant unifying permissions too, without loosening security or adding a new system to manage.
The solution: One spatial view across systems with Voyager
Voyager was the solution evaluated that combined unified search, spatial context and cross-system authentication in one platform. Rather than migrating or duplicating data, Voyager indexed each source system in place, creating one searchable, spatial discovery layer while leaving every system of record exactly where it was. Native cross-system authentication carried each system’s existing permissions with it, so there was no separate identity layer to bolt on. One system needed a more cautious integration because of load at scale. Voyager worked with the State’s team on pagination, controlled throttling and mitigation testing tailored to that system’s limits. Voyager duplicates none of the data, replaces none of the systems, and points users back to the original source.
The vision, delivered
Spatial search: search by location.
Every document tied to an ECMS, MPMS, or Project Number is automatically geotagged, using the agency’s own APIs to locate it. That turns a document search into a map.
Search by MPMS number
Search by route
Search by county
Search by location on a map
Data they had worked with for years appeared on a live map for the first time.
Senior managers and engineers zoomed into a specific area and searched across systems that had never been connected before. Staff now start from a map or a keyword, not a document number. One spatial discovery layer now supports road repairs, snow removal, construction, emergency response and historical construction analysis, giving the agency a faster, clearer view of its own information.
The impact: Staff start from a map, not a document number
Unified discovery across siloed systems: data that once required an exact document identifier is now found through one spatial search. Security that scaled with the search: one discovery layer, with no separate identity system to manage. Complex requirements resolved: every mitigation requested during the hardest integration was implemented, clearing the way to production. Long-term adoption: nearly three years on, Voyager remains core to how the division connects and searches its information, in full production across all systems.
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