LAKE HAVASU CITY — The Lake Havasu City Council voted at its recent meeting to pay a company to evaluate the city’s roads using state of the art AI-enhanced imaging technology. The council authorized $138,000 to hire Nichols Consulting Engineers for the task of scanning Lake Havasu’s 450 miles of streets, including alleys.
The city’s roads are evaluated every year, but the new service promises a much more accurate and detailed look at the quality of the roads. Trucks that are fitted with a variety of cameras are used to capture images from curb to curb, including a 6D laser known as a LiDAR, which stands for “light detection and ranging.”
Once hired, the company will scan the roads and assign a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) to each surface. The PCI measures many types of damage, such as raveling, alligator cracking, block cracking, transverse cracking, rutting, rippling, and potholes. The instruments can also see the depth of the asphalt to determine the quality of the subbase.
The evaluation of each surface will be based on three factors: The type of defect, the severity of the defect, and the amount of pavement affected.
A report will then be generated using the city’s Pavement Management Program software, known as StreetSaver. This software calculates the funding needed to fix the roads, as well as what repairs are needed and when. Any work the city has completed over the last four years will also be added to the system as part of the service.
Although the instruments measure the street from curb to curb, Council Member Nancy Campbell stressed the importance of looking at the crosswalks and sidewalks as well, which may have to be done in-house by the city staff.
The funding source for this project is the Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF).
Alan Hayman
