Road Work
Tech Consultant Launches Data-Driven Paving Platform
Pavewise’s SaaS platform lets contractors enter their own data and project assumptions to receive updates about schedule, quality and compliance statuses via mobile notifications on the jobsite.
Of the more than 2.3 million miles of paved roads in the U.S., 94% are done with asphalt, with airports and parking lots adding more to contractors’ annual workload. While highly dependent on weather, quality of work put-in-place and other factors, pavement projects have stayed notably unintelligent—despite the explosion of big data and business analytics in other areas of construction.
“Working outside [on an] average day there are so many variables that affect us, from the weather to making decisions on operations to be a go or no go,” explains Bryce Wuori, CEO and co-founder of Pavewise, a software-as-a-service provider that recently closed a $2.5-million seed round. “Can we get our quality and our requirements on this particular day because it’s really cold and windy?” Pavewise provides data to paving contractors through its SaaS platform so they can better monitor projects.
Wuori worked with contractors as a paving consultant for 10 years before launching Pavewise in 2023. He bases much of the platform’s functionality on his experience helping paving firms document the quality of their work for public transportation agencies, plan ahead for rough site conditions and generally get the paving done despite many external factors that can derail a project.
“That’s how asphalt paving contractors are paid: It’s on the quality.” Wuori says. “They’re held to a threshold requirement for quality, and if they don’t hit it, they’re not going to get their full pay or they’re doing something like removing and replacing, [which is] even more expensive. The process was just broken.”
He adds that “I was personally running multiple crews, and I wouldn’t get [quality put-in-place] data in for [as long as 48 hours],” he explains. “We would pave five miles down the road, and I still don’t have results and the data to see what the last five miles were,” Wuori says.
Pavewise gives contractors quick updates on the quality of work put-in-place.
Image courtesy Pavewise
The Pavewise technology has been tweaked with decision metrics that Wuori developed over 16 years in consulting. The software has a decision engine that integrates production tracking and analytics, compliance automation and site-specific weather data.
Wuori says the perfect day to lay asphalt is one with temperature of about 70°F and 10 mph winds. But the decision engine gives project managers specific recommendations for what to do on days that are 40°F or with 30 mph wind. “You can really just take a quick look [at your device] and say, ‘this is what I have going on, and this is what we’re going to have to do,’” he says.
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The SaaS platform is optimized for mobile application, since most crews use their phones to input project data and receive recommendations on site. Each user must input data such as project working days completed, tons of asphalt placed, tons remaining, daily tonnage needed to finish the job on time and where work crews are located. This data is then measured against the project’s bid and incentive goals. Pavewise’s tracking function takes the data and sends notifications when goals are not reachable or at risk of slipping. It also sends compliance reports to transportation departments and other paving clients. The service’s Elite subscription tier includes more direct attention and recommendations from Pavewise staff. The firm plans to use its seed funding round to add more artificial intelligence to the platform.
“Every state has specific mix designs, requirements, oil types,” Wuori says. “We’ve started to build in an AI mix library, where you can pretty much put in your mix designs, and you can see your performance based on specs to really understand where you can improve.”
