GALESBURG, Ill. — Galesburg City Council has approved a proposal for a new pavement management system that's expected to increase efficiency while decreasing the cost of road repairs around town.
It's through the company Decision Optimization Technology, and will cost $100,000 to provide pavement management to Galesburg. That cost, however, will not fall on the city. Instead, Galesburg will be reimbursed for the full price through a Statewide Planning and Research Grant through the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Decision Optimization Technology will collect high-resolution pictures of every street in Galesburg, along with an image-analyzed 'pavement rating.' The company will also record things such as signage, curbs, sidewalks, hydrants, utility manholes, streetlights and pavement markings.
It's a process that City Engineer Aaron Gavin says will take about four weeks.
Currently, the city relies on part-time summer interns to collect pavement data. That process only allows Galesburg to see results for about a third of the city's roads.
Once Decision Optimization Technology collects all of the necessary data, it's put into Galesburg's GIS mapping, which is used to track all of the city's roadway assets.
"It will all be GPS tagged, so we'll know exactly where it's at, we'll have an image of it, and that's all in addition to the roadway data that's going to be collected," Gavin told News 8. "The data will be really beneficial, helping us make decisions on how we manage our assets, where we spend money on maintenance, and just having all the information that we can."
Gavin says it will also help the city be more transparent with the public about which roads are going to be fixed and where Galesburg is spending its money.
The technology, Gavin says, is designed to optimize. Basically, it will help the city make decisions on which pavements should be worked on, and when. And that, he says, can help the city catch problems when they're smaller, before they become big and expensive.
"By doing maintenance and doing it at the right time, it can save a lot of money in the long run, because it's really expensive when it comes time to completely reconstruct a pavement," Gavin said. "We'll spend a little money ahead of time, to hopefully save money in the long run."
Galesburg expects to access the data collected by Decision Optimization Technology by the end of September.
Tune into The Current from 4 to 5 p.m. on weekdays to catch live interviews impacting you, your family and your hometown as well as all of the biggest headlines of the day.
Watch more news, weather and sports on News 8's YouTube channel