City-Wide Application of the Affordable and Rapid StreetScan Pavement-Management System

Abstract

The StreetScan pavement-management system (PMS) is introduced. It empowers cities to make more cost-effective road repair decisions. At the heart of the system is a vehicle outfitted with a patented, multimodal sensor array that rapidly collects data for every street in the city. A combination of sensor-specific algorithms and multisensor data fusion are applied to convert the raw data into more actionable condition indices. Decision trees and mathematical models are then applied to determine what repairs are needed and how to prioritize them in the most cost effective manner. Users are able to visualize and interact with the repair suggestions and condition indices through an innovative web-based geographic information system (GIS) application. At less than half the cost, the StreetScan PMS is considerably more affordable than conventional PMSs. This paper validates its effectiveness in the real world by taking a look at two recent applications: (1) a city-wide application in Beverly, Massachusetts and (2) an application to several streets in Boston, Massachusetts.