Hertfordshire County Council has been trialling artificial intelligence (AI) to identify potential potholes
The council is using Robotiz3d’s ARRES Eye, which is placed on a roof rack at the back of a vehicle, as crews go about their usual duties for the day, and scans the road surfaces to identify potholes and cracks or areas of weakness across the network.
Defect dimensions, location, and severity level are displayed onto a remote screen in near real time, helping Highways Engineers to plan road resurfacing programmes and pothole fixes more effectively. Hertfordshire County Council’s Highways engineers have been collaborating with scientists from Robotiz3d to help refine the technology.
After initial trials and testing on a short route last year, the ARRES Eye is now back in Hertfordshire for a long-term test. The Eye will be used to survey a trial route multiple times over a period of several months using its laser technology to read the road surface and look for tiny changes as cracks widen in the cold and wet winter weather.
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By identifying such small changes and tracking them over time, the team aim to be able to identify the early warning signs of deterioration. The technology is still in the early stages of development but, if successful, could allow local authorities to identify future potholes and fix them before they form. Tracking how defects in the road are changing day to day and week to week will help highways teams decide where to send crews, what type of maintenance is required and which routes to prioritise first.
“We know that our residents care about roads and pavements in the county and the changeable weather we’ve had over the last few months, including excessive rainfall and long periods of colder weather, all contribute to potholes appearing and a decline in road surfaces. We know the challenge of fixing potholes will remain and we will continue to tackle this through our Highways Maintenance schemes, but we also know that prevention is better than cure – so trialling technology like this that can prevent potholes forming in the first place is also an important part of our long-term strategy,” said Cllr Phil Bibby, executive member for Highways at Hertfordshire County Council.
As part of the budget setting for next year, Hertfordshire County Council is proposing an increase of £6 million to the Highways Maintenance budget. This increase, if approved, will see a record £100million allocated for use on road defects and other programmes of improvement and maintenance work on Hertfordshire Highways in 2025-2026.
