Road Maintenance in Hawaii
Road maintenance in Hawaii is a critical issue that requires continuous attention and investment from the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT). Despite Hawaii’s beautiful scenery and generally mild climate, the state has seen a high number of roadway fatalities in recent years.
According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 117 traffic-related fatalities in Hawaii in 2022, a significant increase from the 94 fatalities recorded in 2021.
HDOT also faces a number of unique challenges when it comes to road maintenance including the state’s aging infrastructure. Many of Hawaii’s roads were built decades ago and are now in need of significant repair and replacement. Additionally, Hawaii’s location in the Pacific Ocean makes it vulnerable to extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and flooding, which can damage roadways and make them unsafe for travel, and the separate geography of the 4 main islands can cause issues as well.
In 2022, the state of Hawaii and HDOT set out to determine the extent to which manual drives, increased CCTV coverage, and manual roadway surveys in Hawaii can be replaced and automated using crowdsourced dashcam imagery and machine learning. The project encompasses 1,013 miles of roadway, which is the majority of DOT public roads in the state, and covers the 4 main islands of Hawaii (Maui, Hawaii, Kauai, and Oahu).
