Artificial intelligence could be deployed to inspect roads across Aberdeenshire as the council plots multi-million-pound cutbacks.
The local authority needs to save £35.4 million across the next year, and various cuts have been proposed.
Schools, parks, bin collections and various other departments are all in the firing line when Aberdeenshire Council meets to set its budget on Wednesday, February 21.
Papers going before elected members detail a potential £17.3m package of savings – with various plans which could impact the region’s road network.
And they also lift the lid on efforts to utilise modern technology to inspect the area’s crumbling carriageways in the coming years…
What could be cut from Aberdeenshire’s roads budget?
The state of Aberdeenshire’s roads has been a growing concern for years.
Towards the end of 2023, the Ride the North cycling event cited “dangerous” conditions as they put the brakes on plans to stage the event in the north-east again next year.
Instead, it will be heading to Angus.
But in a series of grim warnings ahead of cuts being decided, local leaders cautioned that difficult choices would have to be made.
And, in a savings plan to be debated on Wednesday, councillors will be asked to slash spending on the region’s roads by millions.
It’s suggested that maintenance could be trimmed down, with repairs only carried out at dangerous points.
This would relate to “reactive repairs” such as potholes threatening the risk of accidents.
A “risk-based approach” would be used to “minimise impact” despite a proposed £1m budget cut.
Meanwhile, spending on the council’s internal highways contractor could be reduced by £1.1m as “less overall work is anticipated in 2024/25”.
The papers add: “This will mean an increased focus on retaining works internally rather
than sub-contracting.”
Emergency repair teams could be scaled back
Meanwhile, “out of hours standby squads” could be done away with to recoup £35,000.
A savings plan formed by finance chiefs says demand for this fluctuates, with the current seven teams not strictly necessary.
Under the plans going before councillors, the road repair units would be “reduced to reflect current call-out patterns”.
They add: “The focus of out of hours response will be on ‘make safe’, rather than to
fully resolve the issue.”
In the years ahead, there are also plans to save £100,000 by closing roads depots.
What is the Aberdeenshire plan for ‘AI road repairs’?
The papers explain that technological experts could develop a system of “video-based road inspection” to save money in the future.
This could be achieved by attaching cameras to the many council vehicles that traverse the county “on a regular basis”.
Experts say this would slash the number of hours staff spend carrying out manual inspections.
The footage would be scanned by artificial intelligence, which could pick up on defects.
Although this is tipped to achieve a possible saving of £100,000, it would not come into effect until the 2026/27 financial year.
Would you like to see AI used to tackle road issues? Let us know in our comments section below
Is Aberdeenshire AI road repairs a novel idea?
While it may sound unusual, AI has been used elsewhere to track road repairs.
It’s part of a shift across several industries where “repetitive, complex, precision tasks” have been transferred to machines.
English software firm XAIS asset management runs such services.
They state: “Efficient and timely road inspection is one of the key elements of a successful highway management system.
“However, periodical human visual inspection of the road surface tends to be costly and time-consuming.
“With the help of an AI, this process and can be significantly streamlined and these costs can be substantially reduced.”
This video shows how AI would detect defects in the road surface:
The AI system is “trained” with thousands of images to distinguish defective areas, such as cracks and potholes.
And it can even be deployed by attaching a smartphone by the windshield, with the correct AI app downloaded.
Read more about all of the budget cuts that could be approved:
Conversation