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Two HeadLight field staff reviewing an observation on an iPad beside an excavator
Field data management for public infrastructure

Capture it once in the field. Pay, test, report and audit from the same record.

Your crews capture the work once, on site, and it flows to everyone who depends on it: the office, the lab, the project team, the program and the asset. Built for state DOTs, CEI firms and local agencies.

Book a 20-minute walkthroughSee how it works
Captured · 07:42 · STA 13+50 Deck pour, span 2
Bid item 0509 · Concrete38.5 CYOffline · will sync
Goes to Office · Lab · Project team · Asset

Some of the organizations that have used HeadLight

Louisiana DOTDHawaii DOTUtah DOTMinnesota DOTContra Costa Transportation AuthorityCity of Fort WorthHNTBJacobsWSPGFT
How it works

From the field to everyone who depends on it.

Captured once on site, connected into one record, and delivered to the office, the lab, the project team and your systems of record.

1

Capture in the field

Deck pour, span 2 08:42 · GPS stamped · 62°F
Bid item 0509 · Concrete42 CY
Offline · will sync
2

One connected record: field to everyone

OfficeObservationDaily reportPay estimate
LabSampleTestAcceptance
TeamRFISubmittalPunch list
3

Reports & your systems

Daily report PDF Pay estimate Lab report Submittal log Your system of record Your reporting tools
Illustrative product view
Who it’s for

One record between every organization on the job.

Public work is delivered by several organizations at once: the agency that owns it, the firm that inspects it, the contractor that builds it, and the producers and labs that supply and test it. Most of the friction is in the hand-offs between them. HeadLight is where those hand-offs are recorded once, and where each organization runs its own business on the data.

Owner ⇄ CEI firmdailies, inspections, quantities to approve Contractor ⇄ Producermix, lots, delivery, acceptance Owner ⇄ Contractorpay estimates, change orders, RFIs CEI firm ⇄ Labsamples, chain of custody, results Public agencyOwns the work and the programapproves · pays · accepts Engineering & CEI firmInspects on the owner’s behalfrecords · reports · hands over ContractorBuilds it and gets paid for itasks · submits · sees quantities Materials producer & labSupplies and tests the materialssamples · tests · certifies one field record
Owner ⇄ CEI firmDailies, inspections and quantities sent up for approval.
Owner ⇄ ContractorPay estimates, change orders, RFIs and submittals.
CEI firm ⇄ LabSamples with chain of custody; results back against spec.
Contractor ⇄ ProducerMix, lots, delivery and acceptance.
At the centerOne field record, captured once and shared by everyone on the job.
An agency inspector recording on a tablet
Public agencies & DOTs

Run the whole program from one record.

Working with others on the job
  • Approve dailies and quantities from your inspectors and CEI firms
  • Pay contractors from quantities you already approved
  • Accept materials against your own spec
Your data, your advantage

Every district on the same standards, and an audit trail that stands up to oversight.

$30B+of construction value managed on HeadLight
HeadLight for agencies
Two engineers reviewing on a tablet on a bridge deck
Engineering & CEI firms

Prove your value to every owner you work for.

Working with others on the job
  • Deliver dailies and inspections in each owner’s format
  • Send quantities up for approval the same day
  • Hand the owner a complete record at closeout
Your data, your advantage

One platform across every client, and documentation quality you can show when you pursue the next contract.

130+engineering and construction firms use HeadLight
HeadLight for CEI firms
Paving crew at work
Contractors

Get paid on the record.

Working with others on the job
  • See the quantities the inspector recorded before the pay estimate
  • Send RFIs and submittals and get answers in one flow
  • Change orders documented as they happen
Your data, your advantage

Fewer disputes and faster payment, because the photo, the quantity and the approval are already linked.

25,000+organizations connected: primes, subs, suppliers and labs
HeadLight for contractors
Asphalt paver hopper being loaded
Materials producers & labs

Acceptance without the paper chase.

Working with others on the job
  • Samples labeled in the field arrive with their chain of custody
  • Results go to the owner tied to the lot and the spec
  • Out-of-spec results flagged at entry, retests tracked
Your data, your advantage

Traceability from production to acceptance, and fewer failed-lot disputes.

1.2M+samples and tests tracked in HeadLight
HeadLight for producers & labs
Why this is rare

Capturing once sounds simple. Most systems can’t do it.

They store documents, not data.

When the daily report is a PDF, the quantity inside it has to be typed again for the estimate, the lab and the audit. HeadLight keeps every observation as data, linked to what it becomes next.

They stop at one organization’s walls.

Most tools are built for the contractor, or for the agency. The work that matters happens in the hand-offs between them, and that’s where HeadLight’s record lives.

They make public work fit a generic form.

Spec years, pay items and agency formats are local. When software can’t hold them, people re-key into spreadsheets. HeadLight is configured to them.

Ask the recordWhy the grain matters, now that AI is reading the data.

A question a resident engineer or an auditor asksWhich deck pours placed below 50°F had low 7-day breaks, who approved them, and were they paid?

  • Document managementReturns a stack of daily-report PDFs for someone to read.
  • System of recordKnows 412 CY of structural concrete was paid. It doesn’t know which pour, the temperature or the break.
  • HeadLightAnswers from linked records: the pours, their photos and stations, the cylinder results, the approvals and the estimate lines that paid them.

AI-ready means granularAI is only as good as the grain of the data under it. It can’t reason over a scanned daily or a monthly total. HeadLight keeps every observation structured, located, timed and linked, so a query, a dashboard or the AI tools your agency adopts can answer questions like this.

Illustrative example.

Choose your work

Start from the part of the program you run.

Each area works on its own and shares the same field record with the others.

What changes

The record is made once, where the work happens.

Legacy process
With HeadLight

Legacy processDailies written from memory at the end of a long shift

With HeadLightThe daily assembles itself from the day’s observations and photos

Legacy processQuantities reconciled in spreadsheets weeks after the work

With HeadLightPay estimates built from quantities your resident engineer already approved

Legacy processChange orders that lose their justification between field and contract

With HeadLightChange orders start from a field event, with photos and an approval trail

Legacy processAudits that take weeks because nothing is in one place

With HeadLightEvery record one search away, every dollar traced to the field

No workarounds

The software supports what the project needs. It doesn’t dictate your process.

Field software usually makes the team work around it: a notes field for what the form forgot, a spreadsheet beside the system for the spec it can’t hold. HeadLight is configured to the project instead.

Your forms

Your agency’s forms and observation types, with conditional logic, versioned as they change.

Your spec

Testing schedules start from each spec year’s template and are adjusted per project. Tolerances follow your spec.

Your pay items

Your bid item structure, estimate templates and change-order workflow.

Your approvals

Routed the way your agency signs: inspector, resident engineer, district, headquarters.

Your reports

Daily reports, lab reports and submittal registers in the format your agency files.

Your assets

Your asset types, inspection frequencies and rating scales: NBI, PSI or your own.

Essentials

Standard

Start on HeadLight’s standard forms and workflows, the same day.

Pro

Configured, without code

Your administrators set up forms, rules, reports and approvals to your standards.

Custom

Engineered with you

We build what is genuinely unique to your program: forms, data and integrations.

Ask us to show youA testing schedule built from a spec year’s template, then adjusted for one project.

31,600+ projects in 25+ states run on HeadLight today, from single contracts to agency-wide programs.

How configuration works

Where HeadLight fits

The field layer in the life of an asset.

Plans live in planning systems, contracts run in a PMIS and files sit in document management. The work itself happens in the field, and that’s the record HeadLight keeps, at the level of detail everything else depends on.

The life of an assetWhere each kind of system does its work.

HeadLight doesn’t replace the others; it feeds them. The system of record runs the program, document management keeps the files, and HeadLight keeps what actually happened in the field. It starts at construction and carries on through inspections for the life of the asset.

The grain of the recordProgram systems see totals. The field happens one observation at a time.
LevelExampleSystem of recordDocsHeadLight
ContractContract 24-118, bridge replacement
Pay item0509 Structural concrete, 412 CY to date
Daily reportTue 14 Oct
RFI & submittalRFI 031, deck drain detail, answered
Observation07:42 · STA 13+50 · deck pour, span 2 · 38.5 CY · 58°F · photo
Sample & testCylinder set 07 · 7-day break
structured and linkedsummary, typed in after the facta file, not datanot held
Bridge project story
Project stories

Six months early, under budget, no claims.

A complex Chicago bridge delivered with e-construction and a complete field record. Each story links to the full case study.

Read the GFT case study (PDF)
Light rail tracks
Case studyLight rail expansionHill International, 60,000+ observations logged
Highway interchange
Case studyAgency-wide integrationLouisiana DOTD, 28% productivity increase measured
Post-fire slope work
Case studyRebuilding after the Creek FireQK Engineers, slopes stabilized ahead of the first snowfall
In production

Used on public work every day.

30M+
field observations captured across HeadLight customers
28%
productivity increase Louisiana DOTD measured after adopting HeadLight
60+
public agencies, and 130+ engineering and construction firms, use HeadLight
HeadLight is helping HDOT build resilient infrastructure that’s safer, more efficient, and well-documented to withstand severe storms and rising seas.
Ed SniffenDeputy Director for Highways, Hawaii Department of Transportation

Some of the organizations that have used HeadLight

Louisiana DOTDHawaii DOTUtah DOTMinnesota DOTContra Costa Transportation AuthorityCity of Fort WorthHNTBJacobsWSPHDRTYLinGFTWSBWalbecErgonSpicer Group
Platform

Built for how public work is inspected

Built for public infrastructure

Not adapted from contractor software. Daily reports in your agency’s format, bid items, sample plans by spec year, AASHTO element-level bridge inspection.

One connected record

The photo, the observation, the quantity and the payment are linked, not re-keyed, across inspection, materials, contract administration and bridges.

Works offline

Capture on iPad and iPhone with or without signal. Time and location are stamped automatically.

Fits your agency’s forms

Forms, observation types and approval chains are configured to your standards, not the other way round.

How the platform works
HeadLight and agency staff walking a site

See it in 20 minutes.

A short walkthrough of the field record, from the inspector’s iPad to the pay estimate.

Book a 20-minute walkthrough