How local councils can make smarter use of road condition data to tackle UK’s pothole crisis

How local councils can make smarter use of road condition data to tackle UK’s pothole crisis

How local councils can make smarter use of road condition data to tackle UK’s pothole crisis | New Civil EngineerEnsuring optimum road conditions is an important priority for local councils. Survey figures from the Asphalt Industry Alliance discovered that councils were filling a pothole at an average of every 19 seconds in 2019-20.



This task can often be made challenging with adverse weather conditions regularly creating problems for motorists and highway users, with local authorities also needing to care for drains on the road, manhole covers, road markings and signs. As a result, UK councils are looking to collect and harness high-quality UK data from across their highways network and use it to make informed decisions about the future of their roads.



A challenge that councils face however is the time it takes to complete a conventional survey, with budget constraints and a need to focus on other critical public-facing services also creating hurdles. The conventional process typically involves data collection over the course of a year before the results are received, which then need to be interpreted before maintenance is carried out.



Working smarter with technology



Maintaining roads and highways to a suitable level is a hard-fought process, but with the right technology solutions, it doesn’t have to be. With high-quality video data and computer vision to assess highway conditions accurately, combined with asset management software solutions, data can be interpreted quickly and easily, while maintaining quality.



This combination of technology solutions provides a comprehensive level of visibility to councils, down to the height and texture of the roads. It can also include the state of infrastructure such as streetlights and highlights jobs that need to be done or are currently being addressed. Moreover, councils can access strategic decision support for maintenance and investment options relating to carriageways and pavements.



For councils, it facilitates a way to work smarter and faster without compromising on accuracy. With the responsibility that local authorities have to serve their communities, innovation can often be perceived as a risk, but the bringing together of these technologies allows them to gain the benefits of innovation while minimising risk.



Rather than a project taking place over years, UK councils and highway authorities are able to utilise the technology to replace existing road condition survey methodologies. Quick data collection means that a plan can be developed in the space of just weeks and the maintenance programme can then take place in the same season.



Wide-ranging benefits



Use of these solutions allows councils to benefit from early intervention asset management. This means engineers can collect geospatial video data at every occurrence of going out to the network, whether it’s an ad hoc call out or as part of a routine network or safety inspection. Additionally, local authorities are able to automatically process video data to produce condition surveys, avoiding a situation where an external agency needs to be booked for a survey to be commissioned, depending on its resource available, between six and 12 months in advance.



Survey vehicles are also expensive, costing anywhere up to half a million pounds. A key focus is on the integration of IoT in new assets as they are implemented, giving councils the visibility they need, but it’s also crucial to integrate sensors into older assets to ensure that they can access data of aging infrastructure and act to rectify it. Technology also facilitates the ability for the council to undertake condition surveys on a risk-based approach following inspection, creating the ability for more regular condition assessments to be carried out.



Fast defect discovery



With the early intervention asset management capabilities made possible by supporting technology, councils can crucially identify a network defect as soon as it starts to occur. What this enables is the ability to make an early intervention and target treatment plans at minor defects that have just materialised. Acting earlier before a defect deteriorates further enables councils to implement lower cost treatments, helping them to keep tighter control on budgets and allocate finances to other crucial public services. At the core of this is readily available data that they can effectively utilise.

https://www.civilengineering.ai/how-local-councils-can-make-smarter-use-of-road-condition-data-to-tackle-uks-pothole-crisis/

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