Municipalities are increasingly turning to AI solutions to help maintain roads, a move that city staff in Nanaimo and Victoria say has potential to be cheaper and more efficient than previous technologies.

David Thompson, acting manager of Nanaimo’s public works department, said AI tools help his department keep on top of changes to roads around the city.

“We’ve got over 500 kilometres of roadways and at this time of the year, they’re constantly getting ripped up and repaired.”

Nanaimo is in the middle of a three-year trial of RoadAI, a visual computing AI tool from Finnish company Vaisala.

The tool maps out road conditions — potholes, previous repairs, road markings, street signs — and assesses them according to industry standards by analyzing video taken by cameras mounted on city ve

See Full Page