The city of Columbus has entered into an agreement with StreetScan, Inc. of Wakefield, Massachusetts, for “pavement inspection and management services.”
The Columbus Board of Works has approved the $48,687 contract for the services.
StreetScan vehicles are equipped with multi-sensor systems that can detect “surface distresses” to pavement without disrupting the flow of traffic. Their equipment includes 3D imaging technology to measure road defects such as cracking and bumps.
Executive Director of Public Works/City Engineer Dave Hayward said that the company will “mechanically rate” streets and provide data to the city. This information will help Columbus stay eligible for a state matching grant program.
“Every two years we’re required, as part of the Community Crossings grant program, to do a new inventory and condition rating of all our streets in the city,” he said. “That’s 263 miles divided up block by block, so it’s a huge effort.”
Since the city typically gets about $1 million from the grant fund for paving work, paying for the assessment is a good investment, he said.
For the past couple of cycles, the city has contracted the local office of Strand Associates, Inc. (headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin) for this work. Strand would then send a few people out to manually rate the streets and collect data.
Hayward said that StreetScan’s fee is about the same as the local option and added that it’s “worthwhile to get a different opinion once in a while.”
“If you get a professional out there, looking at the street, they might see some things that the equipment won’t, but for the most part, I think we get better data from equipment like this,” he said.
