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Cincinnati looks to tackle pothole problem with innovative competition

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  Published in Sports and Competition on Wednesday, September 24th 2025 at 19:54 GMT by WLWT
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Cincinnati’s Bold New Play to Curb Potholes: An Innovation‑Driven Competition

For years the city of Cincinnati has been under a quiet barrage of complaints from commuters, trucking companies, and municipal workers alike. The crumbling, uneven roadways have not only become a hazard but a significant drain on the city’s finances. According to a 2022 City of Cincinnati Transportation Study, pothole‑related damages cost the city roughly $112 million annually, encompassing everything from repair materials to the lost productivity of commuters and the additional wear and tear on the state’s freight network.

To tackle this chronic issue, Cincinnati has turned to an unexpected solution: a city‑wide competition that invites technologists, civil‑engineering firms, startups, and even hobbyists to devise new methods to detect, prioritize, and patch potholes faster and cheaper than the status‑quo “call‑a‑repair‑man” workflow.

What the Competition Looks Like

At its core, the competition—dubbed the “Pothole Innovation Challenge”—was launched on May 1, 2024 by the Department of Public Works in partnership with the Cincinnati City Council’s Smart City Office. Participants can submit proposals in any of the following categories:

Entries must be submitted by September 15, 2024, and the finalists will present their solutions to a panel of experts—including city officials, engineering professors from the University of Cincinnati, and representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation—at the Cincinnati Innovation Expo on October 20, 2024.

The competition’s structure is deliberately inclusive: while the prizes are sizable, there is no requirement for a company to be formally incorporated or to have a history of working with municipal agencies. In fact, the city’s rules state, “We welcome proposals from students, community groups, and private firms alike; we want to tap into the city’s creative and technical talent pool.”

The Bigger Picture: City’s “Smart City” Vision

The pothole challenge sits within Cincinnati’s larger Smart City initiative, which seeks to modernize urban infrastructure through data, connectivity, and citizen‑centric design. The city’s data portal, accessible at https://data.cincinnati.gov/dataset/potholes, already hosts a live feed of over 10,000 pothole reports submitted by residents since 2019. A recent open‑data push has made this dataset available for download in CSV and GeoJSON formats, enabling developers to build dashboards and machine‑learning models.

The mayor’s office, in a joint statement with the Department of Public Works, described the initiative as “an investment in the future of Cincinnati.” “By harnessing the expertise of our local tech ecosystem, we aim to reduce pothole repairs by 40 % within the next three years,” said Mayor Michelle Taylor. “The road ahead is clear, and the community has the tools to make it smoother.”

Partnering with the Community

To ensure that the solutions are not just theoretically elegant but also practically deployable, the city has set up a Community Advisory Board composed of local transportation advocates, business owners, and residents from neighborhoods most affected by road damage. Board meetings are livestreamed on the city’s official YouTube channel and archived at https://cincinnati.gov/committees/pothole-board.

The board’s role is twofold: first, to vet submitted proposals for feasibility and safety; second, to help craft pilot projects that can be rolled out across the city’s 200‑mile network of arterial roads. The city has also pledged to allocate $500 k in grant funding for the first pilot implementation of the winning solution.

How Winners Will Be Selected

The evaluation criteria are rigorous, encompassing:

1. Technical Merit – How the solution leverages modern technologies (AI, drones, IoT sensors) to outperform current methods.
2. Cost‑Effectiveness – Estimated lifetime cost savings relative to the city’s baseline repair budget.
3. Scalability – Potential for city‑wide deployment and adaptation in neighboring municipalities.
4. Community Impact – Ease of use for residents, transparency of data, and alignment with public‑health and safety goals.

The final decision will be made by a panel that includes a representative from the U.S. DOT, a civil engineering professor from the University of Cincinnati, and a community liaison from the Cincinnati Police Department. The city’s legal team will review the intellectual property clauses to ensure the city can implement the technology without licensing conflicts.

Past Successes and the Road Ahead

Cincinnati is no stranger to innovative solutions. In 2018, the city ran a “Smart Pavement” pilot that tested a self‑healing concrete mix on a three‑mile stretch of the I‑71 corridor. While the trial proved costly—$4 million—it garnered federal interest and later led to a 2020 grant that funded research on bio‑based asphalt additives.

“This competition is a natural extension of our commitment to evidence‑based, data‑driven public works,” said Director of Public Works, Elena Torres. “We’ve seen that targeted, technology‑enabled projects can produce real savings. Now we’re inviting the entire ecosystem—students, entrepreneurs, and engineers—to help us turn data into action.”

The city has also partnered with Cincinnati’s Startup Incubator, StartupCincy, which will host a series of workshops in the coming months to help participants refine their prototypes. The workshops are open to the public and can be registered at https://startupcincy.org/pothole-challenge.

What This Means for Cincinnati Residents

If the competition succeeds in bringing a new approach to the pothole problem, residents could see:

• Faster Response Times – Sensors and AI could flag and triage pothole reports in real time, cutting the average repair window from 2 weeks to 3–4 days.
• Reduced Driver Injury and Vehicle Damage – With more reliable roads, the city expects a 10–15 % drop in traffic‑related injuries linked to pothole‑induced accidents.
• Lower Maintenance Costs – Early detection and patching prevent the deepening of road damage, extending pavement life by up to 5 years.
• Enhanced Transparency – The open‑data portal will provide live updates on repair status, fostering accountability.

How to Stay Informed

To learn more about the competition, including the full rules, application templates, and the schedule of events, visit the city’s official Pothole Innovation Challenge page at https://cincinnati.gov/pothole-innovation. For those who prefer to follow the competition in real time, the city’s Twitter account (@CincyCityGov) will broadcast live commentary during the Expo, and the city’s press office will issue regular updates.

In short, Cincinnati’s pothole competition is more than a contest; it is a blueprint for how a mid‑size American city can harness the power of local ingenuity and data‑centric approaches to solve a tangible, everyday problem. As the city invites its citizens, students, and innovators to step up, the hope is that the city’s once‑bumpy roads will become a smooth path toward a more resilient future.