By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
“It’s pretty amazing; we’re in the world of AI now,” Decatur’s operations manager, Matt Schultz, told city council at a recent meeting.
Schultz was referring to Vialytics software, a tool which provides huge amounts of information on infrastructure.
The software, which is already being used in Bluffton, was the subject of a lengthy debate held by the mayor and council members, with Tyler Fullenkamp and Matt Dyer not available.
The program is called Road Insights and it provides special cell phones which are mounted on vehicles. The vehicles are driven around on city streets (and county roads) and uncover all manner of problems, big ones and small ones – all of which are recorded on video-type devices.
The information they provide is enormous, it was reiterated.
Pavement defects, potholes, cracks, rutting, uneven surfaces, structures too close to streets, even signs partially blocked by tree branches can be uncovered.
“Basically, it’s an asset management tool,” Mayor Dan Rickord explained.
“This would be a good thing to have if we are going to continue to seek Community Crossing grants,” Schultz noted.
After a fee (like a down payment) is paid, a municipality then pays an annual subscription fee.
The normal, one-time fee for a city the size of Decatur would apparently be around $19,000.
Decatur could have signed on late in this year for a fee of $14,752. But as the debate continued, it was decided to gain additional information before making a final decision.
“We just learned about this,” the mayor said. “And I don’t like to feel pressured, so we’ll get together with them (the company) soon and find out more. Then we’ll go from there.”
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