Open Arsenal

A living map of infrastructure activity.

Road Systems Watch is an open-source civic infrastructure intelligence platform designed to bring transparency and structure to how road construction and maintenance activity is tracked across the United States. Instead of treating roadwork as isolated events, it builds a continuous, evolving record of infrastructure activity tied to specific roads, jurisdictions, funding sources, and contracting companies. The goal is to make it easier for the public to understand what work is happening, why it is happening, and how often the same locations are being impacted over time.

At its core, the system organizes every record by road, city or town, county, and state, creating a consistent framework for comparing infrastructure activity across regions. Each road receives a persistent profile that includes a full timeline of construction and maintenance events, project status updates, and work types such as resurfacing, reconstruction, or utility-related repairs. This structure allows users to see not just individual projects, but the broader lifecycle of a roadway.

A key feature of Road Systems Watch is its funding transparency layer, which uses AI-assisted analysis to map how projects are financed. It identifies contributions from state transportation budgets, federal infrastructure programs, local government funds, and utility-driven work when applicable. Where data is available, it can also connect funding streams to specific project phases, helping users understand how public money flows through infrastructure systems.

The platform also tracks contracting companies involved in road projects, including primary contractors and, when publicly documented, subcontractors and engineering firms. This creates visibility into which organizations are responsible for work in specific corridors and how frequently they return to the same areas. Combined with cycle detection features, Road Systems Watch can highlight patterns of repeated repairs or ongoing construction activity that spans multiple projects or agencies.

In addition, the system includes a citizen reporting interface and an AI analysis engine that helps structure and interpret infrastructure data. Users can submit observations tied to specific roads, while the AI system organizes information, links related entities, and builds a clearer picture of infrastructure activity over time. Together, these features form a living map of infrastructure activity designed to improve public understanding and create a more transparent view of how road systems operate.