BILLINGS — BILLINGS— A van rolling down Yellowstone County roads is doing more than just driving — it's using lasers and cameras to evaluate the pavement as it goes, with the goal of improving the roads you drive on.
And unlike some slow-moving road equipment, this van travels at the speed limit.
The vehicle, called the Iris Pro Pave, uses technology like a roof-mounted camera to evaluate the road as it drives. Right now, that means roughly 400 miles of Yellowstone County roads, gathering a more detailed picture of their condition.
Watch the technology inside the ProPave in action here:
Behind the wheel is Oscar Arambula, an LCMS technician who travels the country collecting pavement data, one road at a time.
"As I'm driving down the road, the system's doing its job... collecting any type of cracks, potholes, things like that on the road," Arambula said.
At the heart of the system is a 3D laser scanner that captures the pavement in fine detail.
"We've got the LCMS2. This is going to be our 3D laser system. It scans the pavement surface in really, really fine detail so we can find and actually measure the cracking, rutting, other distresses," Mollie Rhett said.
A 360-degree camera captures the surrounding right-of-way, while GPS ties what the system finds to a precise location.
"Things that you might not even be able to see whenever you're driving down the road are going to get picked up by that," Rhett said.
For Yellowstone County, the goal isn't just finding roads with superficial damage — it's diagnosing what's actually wrong before the county pays to fix them.
"It's sort of like a medical analogy. If you are going to a doctor and asking, 'Hey, I'm just not feeling well. What could be wrong with me?'" Rhett said.
You wouldn't want that doctor making a diagnosis without checking your symptoms first.
"The doctor doesn't ask you what your symptoms are. He doesn't take your blood pressure. He doesn't weigh you. He doesn't check your oxygen levels," Rhett said.
Rhett says roads are no different. More information can help engineers match the problem with the right treatment.
"The cost savings will come from doing treatments that the roads actually need when they need them," Rhett said.
For taxpayers, that could mean avoiding expensive fixes where they aren't needed and putting limited road dollars where they'll make the biggest difference.
At the end of each day, Arambula uploads what he collected. That data is already being analyzed as the van continues working.
"Generally speaking, within probably four months, three to four months after collection, that is when the pavement engineers will actually start working with the project manager and will actually start working with the agency," Rhett said.
From there, Yellowstone County will decide which recommendations become projects and when drivers could actually see the work.
