Ease on Down the Road... CDO RoadTag Shows It's the Right Way

The Civil Engineering Group in the City of Dayton had a vision – ensure safe roadways by knowing exactly when an area of asphalt begins to deteriorate so the road could be fixed before a pothole appears.  Roadway defects can cause bodily harm and vehicle damage. In addition to these constituent concerns, such hazards can be costly for cities responsible for maintaining streets and protecting the community.

For anyone living in regions prone to roads that freeze and thaw repeatedly, the vision in Dayton seemed almost impossible, maybe even crazy to expect such a tall order.

However, the team at CDO Technologies knew RFID technology could be put to good use in this situation and introduced CDO RoadTag, developed to reduce time between the reporting of a hazard and its correction, thus deliver a viable solution that was cost effective as well. It would also let the City’s engineers know which contractor or utility was responsible for the repair, and insure contractor compliance, not to mention save taxpayer dollars.

Before CDO RoadTag, information on road defects was manually retrieved by searching city records, the responsible company was notified, and steps would be taken to repair the defect. But determining this key information was a lengthy process and took time away from other critical tasks. Engineers, administrators and even contractors spent hours to define the resolution. Meanwhile, the hazard remained or even grew, and risked personal expenses and community safety.

CDO RoadTag provides programed RFID tags containing relevant information which are provided to a contractor when a utility permit is issued. Contractors then place the tags under the final lift of roadway surface. Once installed, engineers and auditors have the ability, using RFID readers, to retrieve data from the tags to get instant access to construction data.

Talk about success!  Routine field checks for CDO RoadTag installations during the first year of implementation yielded nearly 100% contractor compliance.  The city expects to save nearly $60,000 in manpower each year currently spent investigating defects, and believes it will reduce by 80% the time to investigate, schedule and repair defects.

Tim Riordan, Dayton's City Manager, knows they found a winner when he said, "I'm sure our citizens and business have no idea there are RFID tags beneath some of Dayton's streets, but the data collected will help us save money, time and resources over the long run." 

AIM is pleased to honor CDO Technologies for this ground breaking innovation using RFID!  Don Ertel, Vice President of Operations, accepted the 2015 RFID Case Study Competition Awardon behalf of the CDO Technologies team at AIM Summit 2015this past April in San Diego.

To access complete details about CDO Technologies' winning submission, download the entire case study here, or visit the AIM website.

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