Cuyahoga County works with local entrepreneurs on road maintenance
As drivers travel along road after road on their way to work or running errands, they confront variables such as the volume of traffic or the weather. However, one thing remains a constant: painted road markers.
Lane stripes, crosswalks, turn lanes, yield stripes; these painted markers help organize and facilitate traffic. They’re also expensive and require tremendous labor, a point emphasized by Sam Bell, who is a part of the Cuyahoga Heights Transportation Advisory Committee. A long time mechanic, he also used to run an auto repair shop in Cleveland Heights.
Bell recalled a time in which the committee was planning a large scale resurfacing project for Noble Road in Cleveland Heights, which has four lanes and runs through a commercial district and a couple of school zones. Described as a “racetrack” by Bell due to many drivers speeding, he said a two lane configuration would be more appropriate.
“It should be a two lane road with a shared center turning lane and bike lanes and parking and stuff like that,” Bell said. “We designed a streetscape and the streetscape included that shared center turning lane. So, have lots and lots of left turn arrows from each direction, travel lane for vehicles, for cars, and trucks.”
Included in the streetscape blueprint was a buffer lane and bike lane. Bell claimed there was enough room to implement all of those changes. The plan was agreed to and signed off by the committee with backing from Cuyahoga County.
And then came the setback.
“And the last minute we were told, no, you can’t do that,” Bell said. “It’s the paint. And I said, excuse me, what? Oh yeah, it’s the paint. It’s too expensive.”
The cost for paint was projected to be around $30,000. With the resurfacing project itself totaling around $2 million, Bell argued it didn’t seem like a whole lot of money in comparison. He found out the concern was not about the initial paint costs, but the need to repaint it the next year and the year after. There was not a solution to come up with another $30,000 every time.
Due to being in an air quality nonattainment zone, crews were limited on the kinds of paint they could use according to Bell. And the high costs were driven by the use of hand labor, specifically having to use a stencil to draw markings.
Courtesy of Sam Bell
These difficulties prompted Bell to reach out to friend and collaborator, Wyatt Newman. Newman is a roboticist and professor at Case Western University, teaching electrical engineering and computer science.
“I was mulling this over with my friend Wyatt and Wyatt’s immediate answer to all questions is well, could we do it with a robot,” Bell said.
This desire to utilize robotics for cost and labor efficiency is at the core of their company, RoadPrintz. Using a Ford-F550 model, the truck designed by RoadPrintz features a robotic painting arm on the bed of the truck. The robotic arm has sensors to make the action of painting as precise as possible. Inside of the truck is a sophisticated electronic system for operators to control. They’ve completed one prototype and are in the process of developing their second vehicle with customized specifications.
“This is an operator driven, truck mounted, mobile robotic pavement marking system,” Bell said. “So essentially you’ve got a painting robot on the back of the truck and you have someone actually driving the truck because making it autonomous makes it way more difficult and way more expensive.”
Aside from saving costs, Bell said RoadPrintz wants to save lives too. Bell referenced a hit-and-run incident last year on Cedar Road in University Heights which killed one worker and injured another. By introducing RoadPrintz’s technology, the size of road work crews can consolidate and because painting can be operated from the truck, workers will be less prone to accidents.
And although RoadPrintz intends to consolidate the number of workers needed for painting jobs, Bell assured this would not translate into workers losing their jobs.
“Let’s say you’re doing a four way intersection with current technology, you would send a minimum of three trucks and a crew of five men,” Bell said. “We anticipate that we can free up one of those trucks. So, we’ll displace it with our truck and we will free up two of those workers. As the contractor, or as a department of public works, you now have an extra truck with two workers that you can go send to something else.”
Working with the Cleveland Metroparks to complete their pilot testing, RoadPrintz has also received substantial support from The Lab at Cuyahoga County, an initiative which focuses on promoting local entrepreneurship. Rebecca Eby, the Innovation Manager of Cuyahoga County’s Office of Innovation & Performance, said the county has wanted to welcome subject matter expertise.
“Economic opportunity is a priority for County Executive [Armond] Budish. I think the county as a whole has always tried to look for ways to support small businesses and local entrepreneurs,” Eby said. “And I would say traditionally the avenue that we’ve kind of been running down with respect to this type of support has been by providing dollars, right? Whether they’re loans or grants.”
The Lab at Cuyahoga County introduces new ways to support innovative businesses said Eby as it turns public sector agencies into test beds. Instead of limiting prototype testing in a controlled environment, it invites companies like RoadPrintz to conduct their testing in a real world environment.
“It’s not the first of its kind by any means. You’ll see a lot of urban labs popping up around the country,” Eby said. “Pittsburgh has a great program called PGH lab and Durham County with Innovate Durham down in North Carolina.”
Courtesy of Sam Bell
Despite being perceived as a public work, Bell said many road painting jobs are contracted to companies by the county or by municipalities. According to the County Executive’s 2020-2021 Recommended Biennial Budget Book, Cuyahoga County is legally responsible for 22 miles of road. However, the county will provide financial and technical support to cities and villages.
Cuyahoga County Chief Deputy of Engineering, Thomas Sotak, said the county typically does not sponsor road striping projects as it is considered road maintenance.
“Per the Ohio Revised Code, cities are required to maintain roads within their jurisdiction,” Sotak said. “The exception is the two townships within Cuyahoga County in which we are responsible to maintain the county roads.”
The two townships mentioned by Sotak were Olmsted Township and Chagrin Falls, with the county planning to strip Falls Road in Chagrin Falls later this year.
“The only striping that we perform within cities is associated with our county sponsored roadway resurfacing and reconstruction projects,” Sotak said.
RoadPrintz will have to make up for delays in development as the coronavirus pandemic greatly impacted the acquisition of supplies. There are already a couple of contractors ready to work with the company once they officially launch their vehicles said Bell, who is eager to make changes according to feedback. Their hope is to make their technology commercially viable, so it can become an industry standard.
For Cuyahoga County and Rebecca Eby, they hope this collaboration between the public and private sector can continue to grow.
“It’s been very fulfilling to help these entrepreneurs and to work with our amazing partners at the Cleveland Public Library and Cuyahoga County Public Library and [Cleveland] Metropark,” Eby said. “We think this is a great program and we think that there’s a lot that the public sector has to offer.”
