New England DPWs turn to AI to tackle spring pothole season

LEXINGTON, Mass. — Spring in New England is a season synonymous with potholes and roadwork. And while technology can’t put on a safety vest and make repairs, artificial intelligence may soon find a home in local DPWs.

“We see it as a good planning tool, a tool that will help us be more efficient,” said Lexington Town Engineer John Livsey.

Last fall, Lexington was one of six communities to participate in a pilot program testing an AI platform developed by Japanese company Ricoh.

The technology uses crowdsourced video data from dash cams and smartphones to identify road hazards and calculate the specific materials needed for repairs.

Michael Knodler is the Director of the Umass Transportation Center. He helped coordinate the project after meeting with the developer at a MassDOT conference last spring.

The system provides local departments of public works with a digital dashboard showing the location and severity of road damage. Knodler believes this type of technology could expand in the future.

“This initial case is looking at potholes, but it could be used for any sort of transportation assets, signage, guardrails, or sidewalks.”

Lexington Engineering Inspector Omar Gomez said the town provided Ricoh with three routes for the pilot project.

The routes were at least a mile long and had a limited number of turns. Using a demo version of the dashboard provided by the developer, Gomez showed a map of the roads with pins. Each pin marked the location of a pothole, while a separate chart listed each pothole’s severity, address, GPS location, and dimensions.

The system even took the process a step further. “From this, they’re able to calculate the material units. So if you wanted to do a cold patch, which is just kind of a temporary solution, or if you want to use actual hot mix asphalt to fill that patch, it gives you the amount of either of those materials that you would need.”

Lexington town engineers say the program isn’t perfect just yet. In some instances, they say the technology identified one pothole where there were actually two potholes side-by-side. They also say the depth reading wasn’t always accurate.

They’ve discussed their findings with Ricoh, and the engineers say some improvements to the system have already been made. And even with a few bumps in the road, transit experts are eager to embrace this technology once it’s ready.

“Now that AI is in place, we’ve got the potential here to be able to streamline a lot of the jobs that we’ve done traditionally by leveraging technology in a really effective way.”

Six other communities were scheduled to give the Ricoh program a try this spring.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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