Colorado Springs shows off ‘Ghostbuster Car,’ explains role in assessing street conditions for paving

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The city is just two weeks away from releasing the list of which streets will be paved this season, the ninth year of the 2C expanded street paving program.

Earlier this week, we saw how the city prioritizes streets on that list.

Officials explained and demonstrated how they use what they call their "Ghostbuster Car" to improve efficiency in assessing street conditions and determining which streets to prioritize for paving and other improvements.

The "car" is actually a pickup truck with fancier gadgets than we ever saw in the Ghostbusters movies.

But it's not ghosts and goblins this truck hunts; instead, it closely analyzes street conditions faster and better than through visual inspection.

"Not too long ago -- nine years ago -- believe it or not, our operations crew would actually drive and rate the roads, to help them determine which roads deserve our immediate attention, said Mayor Yemi Mobolade. "This was a long and arduous process that demanded a lot of staff hours."

"Getting ready to go out and do another data collection on our entire roadway network. This vehicle makes this process so efficient and so much safer than it used to be, when we actually used humans to go out and walk all of our roadways to try to get all of our network data-collected. So that we can make decisions on where to pave and where not to pave."

The mayor said that before acquiring this technology, it took four to six city workers around three years to gather the same data -- and the data gathered that way, wasn't always reliable.

"We're getting ready to go out and do another data collection on our entire roadway network," said Corey Farkas, the city's operations and maintenance manager for public works. "This vehicle makes the process so efficient and so much safer than it used to be, when we actually used humans to go out and walk all of our roadways to try to get all of our network data-collected. So that we can make decisions on where to pave and where not to pave."

Mobolade reminded everyone that the city will ask voters this fall to extend the current 2C sales tax -- approved by voters in 2015 and renewed in 2020 --For another ten years.

The demonstration was held at the city's Street Division office, near the intersection of Platte Avenue and Wooten Road, on the city's east side.

Neighbors along Wooten hope that the city used its "Ghostbuster" truck there... because several have complained to KRDO 13's The Road Warrior" about its poor condition.

Fountain. Pueblo and El Paso County use a similar data-driven approach to road and street maintenance.