County looks at app for assessing its roads

County officials are considering an artificial intelligence program to determine the state of roads.

Jay County Commissioners tabled a decision Monday on an application created to help make road assessments.

Commissioners also awarded just over a $1 million contract to Brumbaugh Construction for replacing the Seventh Street bridge over the Salamonie River in Portland.

Slater Rush, market manager of Vialytics, explained most counties and municipalities have been either been rating their own roads manually, having employees driving at a slow pace along roads to document cracks, patches and potholes, or hiring a contractor for the service.

Rush noted the program allows the county to handle the work in-house while automating the process.

If implemented, the application could be downloaded on smartphones, and those phones may be attached to a mount on highway department vehicles’ windshields. Users can then record their routes.

Answering a question from commissioner Duane Monroe, Rush said vehicles using the application while recording can drive 40 mph and capture photos of the road every 10 to 12 feet. Photos are uploaded to the system once the smartphone connects to internet at the highway department.

The artificial intelligence program identifies and classifies 15 types of road damage, according to its website, while also detecting and documenting defective traffic signs, manhole covers and water drains. Along with inventory management, the application also manages work orders, Rush added, a feature he said was regularly used by employees.

Rush said Vialytics helps counties to continually make road condition assessments, shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach for handling road repairs.

“By getting them to use the Vialytics system, you can continuously do those assessments and identify where issues are starting to arise and address them before they become much more costly,” said Rush. 

Highway department administrative assistant Stephanie Klarer said Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) road rating system now requires a certification. She said the highway department reached out to engineering firm USI Consultants to help with the work.

Ben Beer of USI Consultants explained his company partners with Vialytics. He noted that Indiana Department of Transportation Community Crossings grants require communities to make road assessments every two years. Beer spoke highly of Vialytics, suggesting the county contract directly with it. (He pointed out that if the county were to hire USI Consultants to assess roads, the company would still use Vialytics’ program.)

A three-year contract with the company would cost $33,840 annually, with an additional $500 setup cost for the first year.

Commissioners president Chad Aker noted he attended a presentation by Vialytics to highway department officials. He said he sees the program as a benefit for determining needs for resurfacing roads as well as helping with liability issues, such as establishing proof of signs for road closures and detours.

Monroe noted his workplace Jay County REMC uses a similar data management system, capturing photos of utility poles across the county.

“There’s so much data that you can pull up at your fingertips,” he said. “But I also know that data’s only as good as what you put in it.”

Monroe said he would like to connect with other county commissioners to hear their perspectives on the program, which is used by several counties in Indiana. 

Commissioners table discussion on the contract until the next meeting.

Also Monday, commissioners awarded a $1,025,000 contract to Brumbaugh Construction of Arcanum, Ohio, for work on the Seventh Street bridge.

Jay County received $1.03 million in March from Indiana Department of Transportation’s Community Crossings grant program for rehabilitating the bridge over. The project also includes adding a sidewalk on the north side of the bridge. Aker said Portland officials have agreed to contribute toward that expense. 

Jay County Commissioners also signed a $13,900 agreement in January with the property owners at 402 W. Seventh St., in order to grant an easement related to replacing the bridge. An additional $7,500 is factored in to pay for trees to be removed in the process.

Other bids for the project were as follows: Milestone Contractors of Portland, $1,429,678.04; Beaty Construction of Boggstown, $1,228,000; and HIS Constructors of Fairland, $1,195,480.

Klarer noted that per state grant guidelines, the paperwork needs to be completed by the end of the month. She asked commissioners to approve a contract Monday, with commissioners noting an engineer needs to review it first. 

Commissioners tabled the decision on the project. Later in the meeting, after a representative from engineering firm EGIS reviewed the bids and recommended Brumbaugh Consulting, commissioners approved the contract.