21 July 2021
Published 11 September 2020
At a time when we’re all being told to work smarter, not harder, Moreton Bay is leading the way by trialling innovative tech projects to save ratepayers money.
An industry leading suite of drawings to integrate wildlife movement infrastructures into roads and a 1,700 workforce restructure to operate from home during strict coronavirus restrictions made the finals at the 2020 Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA) Queensland Awards for Excellence.
But it was the ingenious idea to turn garbage trucks into mobile road monitoring units that secured Moreton Bay Regional Council gold in the innovation category ahead of 76 other Queensland councils.
Mayor Peter Flannery said the idea to affix road scanning technology on garbage trucks to automatically capture live, quality footage to computers is nothing short of genius.
“Garbage trucks travel to every corner of our region, so who better to monitor the condition of our roads and automatically report potholes,” he said.
“It’s such a simple idea it’s genius, and think that’s exactly why it’s a winner.
“The Moreton Bay Region has a large and extensive road and transport network worth more than $2 billion, so keeping on top of the condition of every kilometre can be difficult and expensive.
“This solution is supremely efficient, comes at minimal extra cost, issues are reported in real time and best of all we’re using vehicles that are already travelling our roads.
“In fact, the initiative’s proven so successful we’re installing another 10 scanners onto garbage trucks so that by the end of 2020 we’ll have 15 equipped trucks.
“By the end of 2021 I want another 15 more.
“We have even evolved this tech to help identify uneven footpaths and are investigating robotics options to scan our stormwater pipes for defects.
“I’d also like to congratulation our infrastructure planning and ICT teams on being finalists in the sustainability category for our fauna movement infrastructure drawings and in the teamwork category for IT capability and readiness.”
For more information about the awards, visit https://www.lgmaqld.org.au/Awards-for-excellence