Shoalhaven finds tech path to meet residents’ needs

Shoalhaven region endured 15 natural disaster in the past four years. The region’s council has taken the tech option offered by TechnologyOne to identify, and help repair damage.

Shoalhaven council has partnered with TechnologyOne to find solutions to everyday issues as well as one-off issues

The Shoalhaven City Council in southern NSW has partnered with TechnolgyOne to roll out a hi-tech solution to identify, record and help repair road damage after the region has endured 15 natural disasters in the past four years.

These weather events have had a major impact on the local community through damage to properties, infrastructure and the environment, prompting council leaders to seek a more innovative solution to help with the immediate identification and classification of road defects, to ensure the worst roads are triaged and prioritised.

With more than 1700 km of roads across the region, identifying and recording road damage has long been an issue for the council, even during periods of good weather.

Partnering with TechnologyOne and Australian technology firm Retina Visions, Shoalhaven council placed cameras at the front of six recycle trucks to monitor road conditions as they travelled along their fortnightly route.

“Footage from the cameras is scoured by artificial intelligence to identify potholes, road cracks or damage. The data is then triaged and sent on to our asset management solution to create a work order with location data, work instructions, maps, and photographs so workers can go and fix the problem quickly,” TechnologyOne chief executive Ed Chung said.

“Once the defect has been tended to, the truck picks this up the following fortnight, automatically closing the job. This is just a simple example of how AI can save money and minimise the need for human interactions to help councils do more with less.”

He said it was a great example of how two homegrown tech companies with deep knowledge of how local governments worked and a shared understanding of their priorities, could collaborate and innovate together.

“We understand that liveability and community safety are at the top of the list for councils globally, which is why I’m so proud to see our asset management solution supporting Shoalhaven City Council’s recovery from recent natural disasters and deliver safer quality roads and assets to its residents and visitors,” Mr Chung said.

Partnering with TechnologyOne and Retina Visions, Shoalhaven council tracks road conditions

The partnership saw the Shoalhaven council recognised for excellence in innovative leadership at the recent NSW Local Government Excellence Awards.

The collaborative team of IT specialists and engineers was awarded Highly Commended for the AI-driven road defect detection project.

“An internal cross-functional team managed and executed the project that has resulted in the improved capture of road defects to respond to the community’s needs more swiftly,” said the council’s director city performance, Kerrie Hamilton.

Shoalhaven City Council’s director city services, Carey McIntyre, said the smart solution assisted in addressing road asset repair pain points, namely low coverage, manual data entry, cost, data and reporting lag and time wasted inspecting individual defects.

“As multiple storms, floods, bushfires and severe weather events hit the local government area between 2019 and 2022, Shoalhaven’s assets were severely impacted. We needed a solution to support field workers with the increasing demand and ensure safe roads for our community,” Mr McIntyre said.

TechnologyOne CEO Ed Chung

“The solution detected 2000 defects a week in the first six months, from potholes and overhanging branches to debris on the road, cracks in the footpaths, graffiti, broken or damaged street signs and line mark deterioration, all of which affect the safety of our roads.”

In just two weeks, 87 per cent of Shoalhaven’s entire road network was assessed for defects and the council was able to rectify a record 10,688 defects in as little as three months.

“With a staggering number of defects being detected by only six trucks, we relied on TechnologyOne’s Enterprise Asset Management solution to provide a rating on a scale from 0 to 10 to help our team of 76 field workers tend to the most urgent ones quicker,” Mr McIntyre said.

“As council, we want to ensure our 105,000 residents and visitors are provided with a quality environment, and that includes making sure our assets are up to scratch. TechnologyOne and Retina Visions allow us to monitor and maintain our road network efficiently and effectively for the safety of the community.”

Shoalhaven City Council is not alone.

Adopting TechnologyOne’s modern digital experience platform for local government, DxP LG, is helping the City of Canning in Western Australia to enhance its digital evolution, allowing the council to reimagine its customer experience.

“One of the main challenges we wanted to overcome was managing disparate content and information between separate systems. Our website content was disconnected from our internal knowledge base,” said Neil Allen, the digital solutions architect at the City of Canning.

“We also wanted to streamline our customers’ online journey when searching for information, with a simpler and more intuitive interface, providing the ability for self-service.”

The City of South Perth in WA has also embarked on a transformative journey to align its systems to its customer-first strategy using DxP LG.