TACOMA, Wash. — Editor's note: The above video on a proposed graffiti drone pilot program originally aired on March 21, 2024.
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is officially testing a new way to combat graffiti in hard-to-reach places: "Graffiti battling drones."
The drone pilot program was announced back in March. It's the result of a bill that earmarked $1 million for the project, which will, ideally, end up saving WSDOT time and money.
WSDOT officially announced Monday that they are testing the technology.
Graffiti has been a consistent problem on the state’s freeways, and it’s becoming more expensive to remove.
Data from the Washington State Department of Transportation show that the costs of cleaning up graffiti increased significantly in 2020, then shot up again last year.
The drone, being tested out by the Tacoma maintenance team, uses a spray nozzle and is connected to a paint supply on the ground. An operator on the ground can fly the drone as high as the tethered hose will reach, potentially making quick work of covering up graffiti on tall retaining walls, bridges and overpasses, according to a WSDOT blog.
In 2023, WSDOT maintenance crews spent nearly 10,300 hours of labor covering 700,000 square feet of graffiti along Washington highways, according to department data, and that still wasn't enough to remove all the graffiti.
WSDOT credits the program idea to the lead of the Tacoma-area maintenance crew, Mike Gauger, who upon learning how the drones were being used to perform bridge inspections, realized they could also cut down on the department's time and resources spent covering up graffiti.
Gauger pitched the idea to WSDOT's maintenance director who suggested a pilot program. Then, Gauger worked with a drone company to come up with a prototype designed to spray paint.
WSDOT is the first transportation agency to use drones to combat graffiti.