‘Being really efficient’: How Omaha uses AI tool to rate streets, prioritize projects

Omaha is using artificial intelligence to help maintain city roads, a city engineer told KETV. A system adopted a few years ago means rating the condition of roads in order to prioritize projects is no longer subjective and much less time-consuming, he said.

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‘Being really efficient’: How Omaha uses AI on city street work

OMAHA, Neb. —

For the last few years, the people responsible for maintaining Omaha’s streets have prioritized “being really efficient,” a city engineer told KETV Friday.

Steve Rue, Omaha’s capital construction and street maintenance engineer, says a big part of that is an artificial intelligence-backed system from a company called Citylogix.

KETV asked Mayor John Ewing Jr. about the condition of city streets and the Public Works budget on Tuesday morning, during a wide-ranging briefing over his budget proposal.

Ewing said the quality of Omaha roads is “pretty good,” Public Works said in response to reports, and referred to an “AI technology that helps identify potholes.” KETV sought out to learn more about the AI technology.

In the fall of 2024, Rue said, Citylogix vehicles captured detailed imagery and lidar data of Omaha’s roads, more than 5,000 miles of lanes.

“We’ve standardized the grading process now using a combination of AI, the high-speed imagery and the lidar right to interpret those things,” Rue said.

The previous method relied on multiple individuals assessing road conditions under varying circumstances. Rue said if a person’s “subjective” rating differed by even a single point, “that can make a big difference” in prioritizing what work gets done.

“We have a lot of really great people that care a lot about maintaining the road network and really wisely using that tax money,” Rue said. “I know it seems like a lot of money, but when you consider everything that happens in the right way, it doesn’t go as far as you’d think.”

The data collected is used in a flow chart to prioritize where and how funds are allocated, reducing the staff hours and contractor payments previously required to evaluate road conditions.

“The next biggest immediate benefit that we see every day is we now have a much more comprehensive database of what is in the network that we have a lot more confidence in,” Rue said.

For major roads, the city addresses potholes as they are reported by drivers.

Rue said after the initial analysis of Omaha roads, Citylogix gave Omaha a 75 of 100 on the nationally-recognized Pavement Condition Index.

“We were told by Citylogix,” Rue said, “of all the municipalities they had done in a similar weather climate that we had by far the best average score.”

The next scan of Omaha’s roads is scheduled for fall 2027.

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