Michael Baker International claims their new mobile pavement data system is the first of its kind. The system combines the Pavemetrics pavement profiling solution with its existing mobile Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) vehicle and Ground-Penetrating Radar systems.
The company can now deploy a fully equipped diagnostic vehicle that provides a turnkey, cost-effective approach to gathering pavement conditions. When mounted high on the vehicle, the Pavemetrics LCMS maps the whole width of the lane and eliminates the effect of vehicle wandering during data collection, ensuring more consistent and repeatable results year to year.
“With the combination of the Pavemetrics solution and mobile LiDAR, we’re collecting precise data and imagery of nearly all the assets along the roadway for a holistic approach to transportation asset management. Using LiDAR can also lead to greater safety on the road for motorists as well as our on-site employees,” said Robert Hanson, senior vice president and the firm’s Geospatial Practice leader.
I would like to see an independent test of this system.
Gene – The Tennessee DOT (TDOT) has been contracting with Mandli Communications for the collection of pavement condition data, video log, and asset data extracted from mobile terrestrial LiDAR on a single vehicle since 2009. We have not requested any GPR data collection as apart of our contracts, so as far as I can tell, the GPR would be the only element that we have not already utilized in our data collection effort as a “turnkey” solution to date.
What type of GPR is on this system? How fast can it run? How effective is it in terms of depth over asphalt, concrete, etc…?
Further to the comment by Chris Harris, http://www.roadware.com has also been using the LCMS system from Pavemetrics and GPR for a number of years now … so the MBI press release alleging it’s the ‘first of its kind’ should be interpreted as ‘It’s the first of it’s kind manufactured by our company’.
I’ve also yet to see a press release from ANY company that doesn’t claim to be “The world leader in {blank}” … but this is the nature of the game of business, so do your research before succumbing to marketing jargon
There are many companies that use this technology, ARRB Group (www.arrbgroup.com.au) has integrated the LCMS into their acquisition system and is running systems for data collection throughout Australia. Would also be interested to know which GPR they’re operating? Can’t find anything on their website….
Certainly not the ‘first of its kind’ as Ben S mentions. There are many companies that bolt various components onto vehicles. The secret is integrating the outputs to provide meaningful information for pavement engineers. ARRB Group is doing this with its automated pavement data collection systems.