Borough receiving positive feedback about its new Winter Road Maintenance Dashboard

The Mat-Su Borough (MSB) Winter Road Maintenance Dashboard has provided Valley residents with a new way to report issues on roads this winter.

Whether it’s icy roads that need sanding or a load of snow that needs plowing, this new tool — found at matsugov.us/roadmaintenance — allows users to watch their requests be accepted and completed, right from the comfort of their warm living rooms! Since its inception in September, the dashboard has been a success, according to Operations and Maintenance Division Manager of Public Works Chad Fry.

“The feedback I’ve received has been pretty positive,” Fry said.

When an issue occurs, a user can access the dashboard by clicking on the MSB website’s Problem Reporter button on their homepage. The user will be redirected to the Problem Reporter page, where they can click on the Winter Maintenance icon. From there, a map will appear marking all borough-maintained roads.

Users can then click the Submit a Request button. This produces a list of questions for the user to fill out on the nature of the road maintenance issue, the location of the reported issue, contact information for the person submitting the request and provides an option to upload a photo. Fry suggests reporters use a cellphone that can utilize their exact location. Otherwise, users will have to drag a cursor on their computer to their location. The reporter will receive an email confirming their submission.

Once a request is submitted, the contractor that conducts road maintenance in that area is notified and is required to respond within a certain time frame agreed upon between the contractor and the borough. Contractors log their progress, passing through the problem area and addressing the reported concerns. As they are actively performing their task, a GPS tracker will monitor their progress and provide updates on the maintenance dashboard. Reporters will receive an email once their request has been addressed.

This tool is only available for borough-maintained roads, which will be highlighted in white, blue or gray on the map. White indicates that a road has not needed service for over 24 hours, while blue indicates that the road was serviced within the last 24 hours. Gray indicates that a service for the road is pending. Circles on the map indicate the status of requests the borough has received. A red circle indicates a request is open, a yellow circle indicates a request has been received and is in progress, and an orange circle indicates a rerouted request. Requests will disappear from the map once they are completed.

This service has helped the borough be more responsive to issues than they have in the past using only their Problem Reporter tool. Fry explained that one of the benefits of the dashboard has been the ability to monitor and address certain areas that have recurring issues.

“It helps us on the MSB side target problems, know where our contractors have been or what they’re performing,” Fry said. “From the citizen side, it’s a dashboard that both shows what the contractors are doing and where they can report problems. And then see the problems that are reported.”

There have been very few setbacks with the program so far, Fry said. There have been some GPS signal issues in the furthest north areas of the borough that are resolved when contractors return to an area with better service.

Other boroughs across the state have reached out to the MSB to create something similar, according to Fry. Fry foresees the program continuing to evolve and bring on new features that the borough isn’t even aware of yet.

Despite its success so far this winter, Fry believes the winter maintenance dashboard is still an underutilized tool. He encourages more people to use the service and to provide feedback on how it has worked for them.

“The way we see it, the more problems we can get in and we can get after, the better we can make our service and our roads,” Fry said.