BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — A smart phone app that will help identify problem spots in the village’s sidewalk system is nearly complete and may be ready to launch to the general public this summer.

The app, developed by Clarkson University civil engineering senior Ben Goodrich as his senior project, will allow students and volunteers to catalog broken or crumbled walks on their smartphones. The information will be uploaded in real time to an online database and geo-referenced to a map, which can then be reviewed and used for planning improvement projects at the municipal level.

Goodrich presented the app to the village board at its meeting in April.

Goodrich began developing the app, the Village of Potsdam Sidewalk Reporter, in the summer of 2021 when working with the municipality on its Complete Streets infrastructure audit.

Once launched the app will be able to be downloaded by the public from the Google Play store.

The final version of the sidewalk reporter will be a more easily navigable cataloging tool than the application used by Goodrich and other students last summer to report sidewalk issues.

“It’s super simple. It’s just three clicks and you can report a problem compared to the original time where it was 18 clicks, you had to type things and people were confused by it,” Goodrich told the board at their April meeting.

“This app is to hopefully make it a lot easier for the public to use eventually,” Goodrich said.

When using the app, users will see satellite image maps of their location. After entering an issue or problem, the updated information will be automatically added to the map interface for anyone else to view. If another person clicks or taps on any of the highlighted spots on the map a description of the issue will pop up with information about the problem area with a condition rating and a link to a photo of the issue if available.

Village officials hope the live GIS style mapping application will allow the municipality to better respond to sidewalk issues.

Some of the issues the public will be able to report, besides broken or crumbling sidewalk issues include whether or not drivers speed near the walkway, if more trees are needed to provide shade, if additional sidewalk lighting is required and other issues.

Village Trustee Alexandra Jacobs Wilke said Goodrich is still working on making the app available on the Google Play store for Android phones, but in the meantime, he has created a website with information on the project. He plans to post links there to download the app from the website once it is available.

Visit the site at https://bit.ly/3vYxPHU .

Wilke said the app is still a work in progress as Goodrich is trying to wrap up the project before graduation later this week. She said anything still in progress will be finalized by the C3G team at Clarkson, overseen by Eric Backus and Bill Olsen.

“We are so appreciative of the ingenuity and dedication that Ben has shown,” Wilke said. “Once available, this tool will help us collectively identify the areas of concern and mark our progress in making the village’s streets and sidewalks safe and accessible for all users.”