Sensors on city vehicles will collect daily data about pavement conditions.
Lakeland will soon use real-time sensor data and artificial intelligence — instead of surveys every couple of years — to keep tabs on road conditions, potholes, and cracks across the city.
On Monday, the City Commission unanimously approved a four-year, $240,000 contract with Roadway Management Technologies, a Little Rock-based company that provides pavement-monitoring tools for local governments. The city will pay $60,000 a year, with an option to extend the agreement after the initial term.
The goal is to help city crews spot problems sooner, schedule resurfacing projects more strategically, do preventive work rather than emergency repairs, and “spend our dollars more efficiently,” said Public Works Director Heath Frederick.
“This is a super cool project,” City Manager Shawn Sherrouse said, echoing City Attorney Palmer Davis and several commissioners.
In the past, Lakeland has conducted a full pavement assessment every two to three years, Frederick told commissioners. “It was kind of old information,” he said.
The new system will install sensors on city vehicles and survey Lakeland’s roads “every single day” to see which ones need attention soonest, said Eric Pope, manager of construction maintenance for the Public Works division.
The contract begins March 1. Pope said RMT can begin installing sensors “within a couple of weeks.” He said the initial installations will likely be on Public Works vehicles like Ford F-150s “and possibly code enforcement vehicles.”
How the AI-based system works
As the equipped vehicles drive their normal routes, the sensors will collect vibration and road-surface data. When vehicles drive over potholes or rough roads, the wheels move up and down more than on smooth pavement.
The information will be uploaded to the cloud via Wi-Fi at the end of each day.