Avineon wins subcontract for census GIS work

Avineon Inc. won an extension of its subcontract with Harris Corp. worth more than $3 million to provide geographic information systems support to update Census Bureau databases.

Under the subcontract, Avineon of Alexandria, Va., will continue to deliver services to update two key geographic databases.

The two databases, known as the Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing databases, or MAF/TIGER, are maintained by the Census Bureau's geography division.

The MAF is designed to be a complete and current list of all addresses and locations where people live and work, covering about 115 million residences and 60 million businesses and other structures in the United States. The TIGER digital database identifies the type, locations and names of streets, rivers, railroads and other geographic features and geographically defines their relationships to each other, to MAF addresses, and to other entities.

Avineon will realign digital data, including the type, locations and names of streets, rivers, railroads and other geographic features. The enhanced dataset will provide more spatially accurate geographic information systems that enable Census Bureau personnel to locate streets and addresses beginning with the 2010 census.

The Census Bureau issued the prime contract to Harris of Melbourne, Fla., in June 2002. During an earlier phase of the subcontract, Avineon provided data for 242 counties.

Avineon provides IT, engineering, geospatial and program management services for the government and commercial sectors. The company employs more than 400 employees globally.