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NANCY · how-to

Using NANCY in three minutes

The seven steps of a GHRM assessment, from site boundary to finished report, worked on one example site. About 3 minutes (3:12). The script scrolls along the bottom of the video, set to Vivaldi's “Winter” from The Four Seasons, performed by the Air Force Strings of the United States Air Force Band (Jessica Dan, violin), a public-domain recording. For the full written version with every screen, read the Walkthrough.

Try it now

Open the assessment and follow along. Press Load example in Step 2 for the same site used in the video.

Start an assessment Read the Walkthrough

Download the video (MP4)

Transcript

  1. 0:04NANCY scores the ground at a railroad or highway site, and tells you what it will take to fix it.
  2. 0:14A score you can defend needs two things.
  3. 0:17What the public record says about the ground, and what the ground shows you today.
  4. 0:23NANCY rolls both into one score, Rc, from 1 to 5.
  5. 0:31Here is the assessment, piece by piece.
  6. 0:34Seven steps run down one page, in order.
  7. 0:37The tiles across the top jump to any step, and turn gold when it is done.
  8. 0:42Each step hands what it finds to the next one.
  9. 0:48Step 1: choose Railroad or State DOT, then name the project and the client.
  10. 0:54Step 2: drop in a Google Earth file, draw the site, or type a latitude and longitude.
  11. 1:00Load example gives you a practice site.
  12. 1:06Step 3: click Pull data for this boundary.
  13. 1:12NANCY pulls topography, soils, flood zones, wetlands, terrain history and parcels.
  14. 1:18It also screens the bridges, crossings, borings, wells and old landslides nearby.
  15. 1:25If a source fails, rerun it before you score the site.
  16. 1:31Step 4: walk the site. Until you do, the score stays provisional.
  17. 1:37Score what you see today, from ditches and culverts to cracks and seeps.
  18. 1:43Then confirm or correct each desktop finding. Where they differ, the field wins.
  19. 1:51Step 5: NANCY suggests every score and shows you why.
  20. 1:56Type an override wherever you disagree.
  21. 1:59Seven weighted elements add up to Rc. Our example scores 3.25, moderately unstable.
  22. 2:08The class sets what comes next: monitoring, borings, lab tests and the deliverable.
  23. 2:16Step 6: NANCY matches the fixes to whatever is driving the hazard.
  24. 2:22Costs come from state DOT bid prices, for the site's state and year.
  25. 2:27Culvert replacement brings Rr to 2.29, under the 3.50 target, and pays back about two to one.
  26. 2:38Step 7: name who owns the action plan, then click Generate report.
  27. 2:44You get the letter, site sheet, risk matrix and action plan, with every source.
  28. 2:51Print it, save it as a PDF, and save the assessment file.
  29. 2:57Draw the site, pull the record, walk it and score it. Then price the fix and write it up.
  30. 3:04And have a licensed engineer check it before anyone builds from it.