Laser technology speeds up checks

14 June 2006

Monitoring of England’s major roads should be safer and faster, following the introduction of a new Scandinavian system for monitoring road condition.
The Traffic Speed Deflectometer can survey the structural condition of roads at speeds of up to 80kph, leading to fewer delays for drivers caught behind the survey vehicle. As a result, it is hoped the monitoring of England’s 7,200 kilometres of motorways and major A roads, all surveyed at least once a year, will now be completed more quickly and cost effectively.
The Highways Agency has bought in the equipment from the Danish Government at a cost of around £1M, and plans to have either it or an improved version operating by 2009. The TSD has been developed from the Danish high-speed deflectograph, which uses two laser sensors to measure the vertical movement of the road surface.
The device is almost 30 times faster than the current Highways Agency road research information system, known as HARRIS, which travels at just 2.5kph.
The HA believes this will lead to fewer delays and also make it possible to divide the road network into sections with ‘good’, ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ bearing capacity. These results would be used by to concentrate maintenance on the road stretches where it is most urgently required, improving efficiency and cutting the number of road closures. Unveiling the TSD at TRL’s test track in Berkshire this week, roads minister Dr Stephen Ladyman described the project as ‘forward thinking.’
He also looked at other technologies during his visit, including 3D laser-scanned models of road scenes so investigators can replicate accident sites, and drive through them under different lighting and weather conditions.
This would allow a detailed examination of the factors that might have contributed to crashes after the roads where they happened have been reopened.

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