The city of Syracuse is bringing a new approach to a decades-old problem. A group called the Innovation Team has spent the last year addressing the Salt City's infrastructure. Matt Jarchow has more about team and explains their problem-solving approach.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse's Innovation Team is one of 14 of it's kind around the country.

The group is designed to improve cities through creative problem solving one area and one year at a time. For the past year, the team in Syracuse has focused on infrastructure.

"Our focus has been on what can we do here locally to improve the condition of our infrastructure here in the city," said I-Team Director Andrew Maxwell. "It's really been our own self-determination, how can we take best practices and put them to work here in Syracuse."  

Much of the infrastructure approach centers around data and technology. The city is using new equipment to reduce the impact of water main breaks by recognizing a potential problem before it becomes one.

"We started piloting water sensors that actually sit on water mains and can sense if there are leaks in the water mains, and that way we can better plan out when we're going to fix the leaks so that we don't have to do it during dinner time," Chief Data Officer Sam Edelstein said.

The I-Team is also using data and technology to improve city streets. They have a device attached to city cars that measures the bumpiness of a road and determines which ones most need repairs.

"We can see where are potholes, we can sort of confirm whether it's a pothole or not when people do come in to complain about a pothole, and then we can see where are pockets of these potholes so that when we're going to fill them up, we can fill up 20 of them in one block instead of just going to do one," Edelstein said.  

That approach fits the I-Team's mold of proactive and efficient.  

"We have to come up with good ideas that are going to have an impact, but aren't so expensive or difficult to implement that we aren't going to be able to make that difference," Maxwell said.   

Tomorrow we will continue looking at the I-Team's work, with a focus on how the Innovation Team will be implementing these initiatives, as well as the steps taken to engage the public.