THE Southern Downs Regional Council hopes to gain a better understanding of the region's road network by undertaking a video survey of all sealed roads, unsealed roads and carparks.

SDRC infrastructure services manager Stephen Bell said the council had advertised for tenders for people with the right equipment to carry out the survey.

"The road surveys are generally undertaken using specially modified vehicles that are fitted with multiple video cameras, global positioning system receivers and computers for recording the video and GPS data," he said.

"In simple terms, the video data recorded in the field is generally utilised for two purposes being firstly to conduct an inventory of the council's roads and secondly to allow a condition assessment of the network to be performed."

Mr Bell said video surveys provided a permanent record of the road network and surrounds, were cost effective and made it easy to compare any changes in the roads from survey to survey.

"The information obtained from the video survey and road condition assessment will assist council to make an informed decision about the management of its extensive road asset," he said.

"It will also allow council to have a better understanding of the condition of its entire road network thus enabling council to be more proactive in completing the annual road maintenance and improvement tasks."

The last road survey took place in 2010.

Tenders will be considered by the council during their December general meeting and Mr Bell said the survey would be completed by the end of next year.