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Santa Fe committee hears demonstration of VOTA AI to prioritize water‑main replacements
Summary
Taylor Jurgens, an engineer with the water division, demonstrated VOTA AI to the Public Works and Utilities meeting on June 29, 2026. The cloud‑based machine‑learning tool uses over 10 years of break history plus soil, weather and infrastructure data to score mains by failure risk and help plan replacements; the committee approved routine agenda and consent items by voice vote.
Taylor Jurgens, an engineer with the water division, demonstrated VOTA AI, a cloud‑based machine‑learning tool the city is using to rank water mains by likelihood of future failure and to help schedule replacements.
"VOTA AI is...outputs a risk score or a likelihood of failure for all of the mains in our system," Jurgens told the Public Works and Utilities meeting on June 29. He said the model ingests the city's more than 10 years of water‑main break history, pipe attributes (age, material, pressure), and third‑party data such as soil conditions, topography, proximity to highways and rail, rainfall and proximity to critical facilities, then calculates a per‑main risk profile and remaining useful life.
Jurgens demonstrated the software dashboard, which highlights highest‑risk mains, projects remaining useful life curves and includes a project planner that suggests optimal bundles of pipe replacements given a budget. He also showed a GIS heat map that ranks neighborhoods by predicted likelihood of failure; the division has used the software for about one year and continues to refine the models by feeding new break data into the system.
Chair Chavez praised the presentation as an advance for the city's asset‑management work, saying the tool can help "invest capital where risk is highest" and make taxpayer dollars go further. Chavez credited staff work, saying a lot of the asset‑management effort "has come out of Jesse" and acknowledged Director Roach's leadership in the utilities division.
Councilor Bustamante said constituents and businesses experienced real harm from a recent break, citing "a recent water main break near San Mateo and 2nd Street where they kinda meet up," and said predictive tools can reduce lost revenue and resident inconvenience.
The committee approved the meeting agenda and the consent agenda by voice vote with no opposition during the session. Chair Chavez announced the next committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 20, 2026, and adjourned the meeting.
Notes: The presentation focused on model inputs and planning outputs; no formal policy vote or funding decision for VOTA AI was recorded during this meeting.
