Mobile Lasers & Video Testing Oklahoma County Road Infrastructure For Possible Repairs

Roads managed by Oklahoma County are getting an extra close inspection.

Beginning this week, a van with “deflection testing” equipment will be roaming roads that are managed by Oklahoma County.

The van is packed with laser and video technology with the capability of not only testing a road’s surface, but what’s underneath as well.

“The purpose of that is so that we can detect road conditions that aren’t necessarily available to the naked eye, so we can prioritize where we do our road maintenance,” said Oklahoma County Commissioner for District 3, Kevin Calvey.

The van travels roadways at 35 mph or less.

Calvey said it’s all about preventative maintenance.

“If we catch certain things early, in some cases before it would become evident to the naked eye, we can save the tax payers a whole lot more money than if we wait until later when things are visible,” said Calvey.

This isn’t the first time Oklahoma County has had this type of work done.

The county is paying contractor “Information Management Systems” over $112,000 for the work.

“It’ll easily pay for itself in very short order in terms of the savings it will provide for the taxpayers in terms of more responsive road maintenance,” said Calvey.

Road results will be back by the end of June. That, along with traffic counts, will help determine what roads will be worked on first.