The development of Civil Lite began several years ago, when I was introduced to Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. I was the county engineer in Franklin County, Alabama, at that time, and I immediately recognized the incredible value of combining this technology with current transportation methods. The overall condition of our roads and bridges was abysmal. I inherited Base failures, potholes, weight restricted bridges, closed bridges, grown up rights-of-way, poor drainage, and dilapidated equipment with very little revenue to fix anything. The commission meetings were filled with angry citizens, economic development was impossible, and the politicians were all in very bad moods.
Does this situation sound somewhat familiar to you? If so, don’t jump off any of your substandard bridges, because there is hope. I just retired from Franklin County after almost 32 years of fighting these battles. Franklin County is far from perfect, but it is much better today than it was 32 years ago, when I inherited the described disaster. The real question is how did we survive it? The answer was a fundamental change in how we managed our infrastructure. New and innovative methods changed the toxic culture of the highway department and earned the trust and respect of decision makers and the citizens we served. We tried but could not find a simple and economical solution to the problem, so we began the process of building what is now Civil Lite.
The Civil Lite suite of tools, and the process of implementing and effectively using those tools, were specifically developed to provide you with that power. Civil Lite was designed and developed with the end user in mind, especially the local government user. It combines powerful GIS technology with proven civil engineering principles for unparalleled infrastructure management power. Civil Lite provides sophisticated data-management tools, with excellent analytical capabilities while maintaining ease of use and customization. It is our goal to provide a simple and affordable solution that is not exclusive. We want you to own it and, more importantly, we want you to use it. There are a lot of good infrastructure management systems out there, but most are either too expensive or too complex. Civil Lite is neither, it was designed specifically for you!