The last time Hempfield Township had a full evaluation of its roadway system was in 2018.
"There, we did the traditional study where the road went out, they were evaluated, and that carried us through about 2022," said township manager Aaron Siko.
But now, instead of hiring a firm to conduct that study -- Hempfield is turning to artificial intelligence.
"This will be an in depth analysis of our entire system," Siko said.
Hempfield Township supervisors approved a five-year partnership with a company called Vialytics. They'll be getting four devices that can be used in any of the township vehicles to help identify issues on township roads.
When someone is using a vehicle with one of the devices, it will record their trip and then analyze using artificial intelligence any sort of issue.
Video from Vialytics' website shows how the AI works -- quickly identifying cracks in the road, seams, potholes, and even issues with road signs.
"It'll help us with our preventative maintenance routine ultimately allowing us to focus our paving program on the roads that have to be paved, and then looking at those other areas of preventative maintenance such as cracks, sealing, fog coating, reclamation and rejuvenation," Siko told Channel 11's Andrew Havranek.
The cost of the four devices with the AI software will cost about $33,000 a year for the next five years. Siko said hiring a pavement management firm would cost more than $2 million.
"We think this is money well spent on evaluating these roads on a year-to-year basis," Siko said.