Street Cuts Get Intelligent

Street Cuts Get Intelligent

CDO Technologies has commercialized its ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID solution for tracking information regarding street cuts—openings in roads that are typically made by utility companies to repair cables and pipes underground. The solution, known as RoadTag, was commercially launched last year, and several dozen cities and agencies are now preparing to adopt the system to monitor road cuts, as well as some roadside assets, in order to provide information to workers in the field. Denver and Colorado Springs recently announced deployments of the technology, while Los Angeles intends to employ the system to track sidewalks and bicycle lanes citywide, as they are being installed.
Dayton, Ohio, was the first municipality to adopt an early version the RoadTag, (see RFID Speeds Up Roadway Repairs), with ruggedized UHF RFID tags embedded in the roadway where cuts had been made and then restored using concrete and asphalt. Every year, the city investigates 70 to 100 complaints about poorly restored road cuts, and for sections where an RFID tag was installed, the technology enables those who respond to quickly access information about who made each cut and carried out the restoration, so that any necessary repairs can be quickly scheduled with the appropriate parties.