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Committee forwards five-year Urban SDK renewal to full Jonesboro City Council
Summary
The Finance Administration Council Committee voted to forward Resolution 25‑112, a five‑year renewal with Urban SDK for citywide speed and volume data, to the full City Council. The contract would run through Feb. 1, 2031, with annual renewal amounts and funding from the Engineering Department operating budget.
The Finance Administration Council Committee of the City of Jonesboro voted to forward Resolution 25‑112 to the full City Council, authorizing a five‑year renewal with Urban SDK to provide comprehensive speed and volume data for roadways inside the city limits.
The resolution, read into the record at the committee meeting, says the renewal term would end on Feb. 1, 2031. The renewal schedule listed in the resolution shows an initial contract-year amount of $5,341.67 and annual amounts of $16,025 (Year 1), $16,506 (Year 2), $17,001 (Year 3), $17,511 (Year 4) and $18,036 (Year 5). The resolution states funding will come from the Engineering Department operating budget and compensation will be paid in accordance with the agreement.
Why it matters: City staff said the Urban SDK data helps traffic planning and reduces field work. Engineering Department staff explained the vendor “pings digital data to keep track of vehicles moving down the street and how fast they're moving and how many are moving,” and said the city compares Urban SDK outputs to its own field counts when accuracy is in question. The committee was told the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) also has a contract with Urban SDK and uses the same dataset for the broader region.
At the meeting a committee member asked, “This group, SDK, they come in and collect information on speed. Is that correct? And then also, what do we do with that information?” Engineering Department staff replied that the data are mined and populated into a monthly-updated map and that staff use the data to avoid deploying physical counters on roads already shown to exceed or fall below traffic thresholds. The staff added that where data are questionable staff will perform field counts to verify accuracy and that, in their experience, Urban SDK results have been “within the same order of magnitude” as in‑house counts.
The committee did not vote on the contract itself; it voted to forward Resolution 25‑112 to the full City Council for consideration. The motion to forward was made and seconded on the record; the committee chair called for the committee’s recorded vote to forward the resolution.
The resolution will appear on a future full City Council agenda for final action.
