Village of Orland Park officials believe they can save some money and get ahead of potential road damage by implementing an AI road tool.
At the Feb. 16 Committee of the Whole meeting, Public Works Director Joel VanEssen recommended that the village invest in a tool called Road Scan that he estimated will save the village $50,000 over a five-year span.
More importantly, the vehicle-mounted device will be able to allow officials to make decisions on repairs to roads, curbs, sidewalks, signs, trees and bike paths ahead of time.
“It’s a proactive approach,” VanEssen said. “So, instead of waiting around for the failures and complaints, we’re trying to get ahead of it so that we can make those decisions.”
He said the last scanning system cost $150,000 and would be projected at $200,000 to re-up. It performed a scan once every five years and provided data only on roads.
This new system will be yearly and the cost will be in the $30,000-per-year range and would include the sidewalks and other items, which VanEssen said would be “powerful.”
He added that Cyvl Transportation, which created the Road Scan, says it will provide “a high resolution camera that allows us to complete a full village-wide pavement scan annually,” and that the technology coupled with the AI features will be a huge help.
The village would use the service for one year and then figure out if it wants to sign a multi-year deal after that.
Mayor James Dodge likes the idea of staying ahead of potential repairs.
“I’m pretty excited about this idea,” Dodge said. “I don’t know if ‘no-brainer’ is a good word.”
Dodge joked that he hopes in three years that the AI system gets “bored” because there would be no more streets, sidewalks or signs that need repair.
The mayor said there are 550 miles of roads in Orland Park and between 1,100 to 1,200 miles of sidewalks in the village to analyze. He called Road Scan an important tool.
“You’re going to have a pretty comprehensive study every year about the condition of all those roads,” he said. “We’re going to be able to analyze to see what’s degrading where and at what rates.
“It would be fairly comprehensive and then the secondary benefit coming out of that is maximizing the lifespan of a road with treatments over the course of its life.”