Pictures speak louder than words
CITY OF PALMDALE, California - CitiTech Systems, Inc. - Palmdale, California, home to 127,000 people in the high desert of Los Angeles County, knows where work needs to be done and has pictures to prove it. In what is one of the most-innovative examples of integrating technologies to improve service, the city put another “set of eyes” on the road to spot problems and identify potential trouble areas. It not only saved the city money, it also improved service to the community.
Responding to complaints from citizens that their street hadn’t been swept in months, when it really had been, Terry Connell, deputy director of public works, and George Upegui, superintendent of street maintenance, had video cameras mounted in their five street sweepers, each coupled to a monitoring system, and videotaped the sweeper route. This simple step proved to be even more beneficial to the city than originally hoped.
It not only documented when a street was swept, but also tracked problem areas in roads, signs, lights, curb and gutter, sidewalks and other structures. The sweepers travel Palmdale’s 400 curb miles of road at least once a month and by aiming the camera to view a wide area and using a voice-activated recording system, the sweeper operator notes problems areas.
Every day, the video recordings are archived on date-stamped CD-ROMs and voice recordings are reviewed for location/problem information. This information is then entered into their computerized maintenance management system (CitiTech Management Software), which tracks the work order to insure timely completion and monitors cost and performance for all maintenance activities, including sweeping.
“It doesn’t take long to transcribe voice recordings into work orders,” Connell said, “but if we had the money we would ‘go digital’ and use GPS and hand-held devices to capture information. Our system is simplistic, yet efficient”. While a voice-activated system would work to perform regular observations and generate work orders, there’s a definite advantage to videotaping. It gives the city a video record of the condition of its numerous and varied assets. Palmdale keeps the CD-ROMs for seven years as a legal reference.