Philadelphia’s Pitch & Pilot Program Seeks Roadway Quality Ideas

The city of Philadelphia’s “Pitch & Pilot” program is currently seeking ideas to help the city improve the data it collects on roadway quality, with the goal of saving money and decreasing repair times on city streets. SmartCityPHL – within the Office of Innovation and Technology – and the city’s Department of Streets would like to use a “pavement repair prioritization tool” that has the ability to inventory road signs and the locations of manholes, along with assessing the condition of the pavement.

Vendors will have a $10,000 budget to build a tool that saves labor and/or costs and creates an inventory of street data and recommendations for future pavement management. The optimum technology would have the potential for secondary applications that do not directly relate to roadway repairs but that could provide data and analysis that support other objectives of the city government. Other cities around the US have been successful in saving money and providing residents with pertinent road closure information by using similar programs.

The pilot technology and software is expected to be able to provide:

  • Data analysis – The solution should include easy-to-use software that utilizes AI technology to: conduct pavement assessment; inventory road signs; assess the condition of pavement markings; and identify manhole locations; and,
  • Reports: at the close of the project the chosen vendor would provide a report that includes: pavement management recommendations and a data set of road signs, pavement markings, and manhole locations.

This will be Philadelphia’s fifth Pitch & Pilot project since the inception of the procurement program in December, 2019. Other test projects have included reducing waste, improving tap water, enhancing the city’s public spaces, and other roadway inventory systems.