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Public Works Board debates statewide needs assessment, considers Microsoft AI pilot to parse plans
Summary
Board discussed using existing state data, a budget proviso or HB 1690 to launch a comprehensive infrastructure needs assessment and explored a no-cost Microsoft 'AI for Good' pilot to extract project needs from hundreds of municipal comprehensive plans as a near-term diagnostic.
Board members spent an extended portion of the Jan. 23 meeting on how to build a comprehensive picture of Washington's infrastructure needs, weighing scope, cost and the right policy vehicle.
"We've been exploring whether some type of budget proviso language would be more appropriate to direct the public works board and sync to do the work that really is envisioned with a needs assessment," Executive Director Maria Jawad said, listing House Bill 1690 as one possible vehicle but noting there was not yet consensus to use that bill.
Chris Pettit, program manager for the Department of Health's drinking water State Revolving Fund (SRF), briefed the board on upcoming EPA-driven needs-assessment activity and said the SRF and Ecology clean-water assessments will produce large, updated datasets in the coming months. Pettit noted the scale: "We had over $220,000,000 worth of project applications, come in... 46 total applications, 21 of them qualified for potential subsidy," and said the work will require substantial aggregation and standardization.
Staff also described exploratory talks with Microsoft about an "AI for Good" pilot that would use machine analysis to extract infrastructure-need information from hundreds of local comprehensive plans and CIPs. Staff framed the AI pilot as a way to produce a quick, indicative picture rather than a definitive, fully audited needs assessment.
Members cautioned that smaller jurisdictions and community-run systems may not have standardized or up-to-date planning documents, creating a "black box" of uncertainty and the need to validate any AI-derived outputs against program-level data. The board discussed staging: first inventory existing state-collected data and partner datasets; second, use automated tools for a fast diagnostic; third, perform targeted outreach or surveys where gaps remain.
No funding appropriation for a full study was approved; members asked staff to continue refining options including a possible budget proviso, partnership with Ecology and Health, and targeted pilot work with Microsoft that would include verification steps with DOH and other technical partners.
