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Payson staff to pilot smartphone road‑scanning app; council hears demo of pavement and asset tool
Summary
A vendor demo showed a smartphone-based system that captures images every ten feet to create pavement condition maps and asset inventories; staff said the town will begin with a one‑phone pilot and cited an annual subscription cost of $18,000 (includes phone).
Payson officials on March 25 heard a presentation from a vendor showing a smartphone‑based road and asset scanning platform that uses an iPhone mounted on a municipal vehicle to capture images every 10 feet, produce pavement condition indices and map assets such as signs, manhole covers and storm drains.
Sam Decker, the presenter introduced by staff, said the system can produce a heat map of roadway distress, allow staff to click through individual images, and support work‑order generation and warranty tracking. He described the platform as a complement — not always a replacement — to higher‑precision LIDAR scans used in prior studies.
The council asked whether the system measures detailed distances and how it compares to LIDAR. Decker said the phone‑based system does not provide sub‑inch engineering measurements but can identify surface distress in near real time; he said repeated scanning improves scoring and early detection of potholes and other surface failures.
Cost and deployment: Staff and the vendor said the town would begin with a one‑phone deployment; the presenter and staff reported an annual subscription price of about $18,000 that currently includes a phone and the first phone mount. Council and staff discussed integration with prior LIDAR work and agreed the two data sources can be used together — LIDAR for base‑layer engineering analysis and the phone system for ongoing, real‑time monitoring.
Why it matters: The tool can help the streets department identify new defects quickly, prioritize repairs, and build a visual, time‑stamped record for warranty or contractor claims. Staff said the system’s data can be exported to GIS and used to plan treatments and budgets.
Next steps: Staff indicated the streets department had received the mounts and would begin driving to collect data; the subscription and budget impacts were noted for upcoming budget discussions.
