Intelligent pavement management and big data

Maintaining and preserving South Africa’s paved and gravel road network is crucial for society and the economy. IMIESA speaks to Yesh Balaram, General Manager, ARRB Systems Africa, about how his company's technologies are redefining automated road assessments.

What are some of your career highlights to date?

YB Being in charge of disruptive technology in the pavement engineering and asset management environment is both challenging and engaging. This brings about research opportunities that one would not find in a typical workspace and I am constantly learning new things. I have authored various peer-reviewed papers and have had the opportunity to travel extensively to share my experience at conferences and seminars around the world. It’s always a pleasure to network and socialise with both new and old industry peers in a foreign land. This is all possible

Yeshveer Balaram, General Manager, ARRB Systems Africa The Roughometer 3 is a Class 3 IRI roughness measurement device suitable for both sealed and unsealed roads because I am surrounded by exceptional people – from the young, talented and resilient team that I lead, to my accomplished mentors and visionary leaders.

What’s the current state of South Africa’s paved road network?

While our national roads are comparable to the best in the world, our provincial and municipal road networks are generally in an advanced stage of deterioration. A vast number of roads are well beyond their original structural design life. There is an ever-increasing maintenance backlog, which threatens transportation logistics, increases road-user costs and reduces road traffic safety.

To further exacerbate these dynamics, the already constrained funding earmarked for road maintenance is being ineffectually utilised. This is largely due to a lack of credible and pertinent road condition information and inappropriate or non-existent road asset management implementation. The net result is that whole life-cycle management strategies are not applied. This obviously has a direct influence on our economic output.

Road traffic accidents for example, cost the economy around R160 billion each year!

How is ARRB helping to address the challenges?

At the centre of our pavement data collection operation is the ASTM E-1656 compliant Network Survey Vehicle (NSV) fleet. The NSV has various subsystems that work in unison to collect comprehensive surface and functional road data. What sets our NSVs apart from other similar equipment is the fact that all subsystems are genuinely integrated and controlled through a single data acquisition and processing software system called Hawkeye.

This structure allows for a seamless spatial integration of all collected data streams including GPS, high-resolution imaging, 3D laser crack measurements (LCMS); geometry, such as slope, grade, horizontal/ vertical curvature; and surface profiles, such as texture, rutting and roughness. The system operator (and others) can monitor all data streams in real time for quality control purposes.

Our intelligent Pavement Assessment Vehicle (iPAVe) and intelligent Safety Assessment Vehicle (iSAVe) have the same capabilities as the NSVs, but with the added ability to measure continuous pavement deflection and skid resistance, respectively.

How do these technologies influence asset management practices and maintenance budgets?

To put it simply: better information leads to better decisions, leads to better maintenance practices, leads to better and safer road conditions! Up-to-date, accurate information is essential for transport departments to properly plan construction and maintenance activities and subsequently manage their networks in a cost-beneficial way. The utilisation of automated road assessments ensures objectivity, accuracy and an exceptionally high degree of repeatability in a fraction of the time when compared to conventional methods. This helps road authorities make better, more well-informed decisions.

Our technology is fine-tuned to identify problems as early as possible, saving time, money and lives. Road agencies recognise the considerable benefit that this technology brings to their road network management and are incorporating its use into their roads policies. This is Industry 4.0 in road asset management.

Where are the gaps in terms of current structural condition assessment practices?

One of the limitations with falling weight deflectometer (FWD) measurements is the frequency of data gathering. Five or ten points in a kilometre are insufficient to enable an accurate analysis of subsurface conditions. The FWD is also slow and relatively dangerous in that each test takes around 30 to 40 seconds, with the vehicle being stationary and requiring formal traffic control.

Conversely, traffic speed deflectometer devices such as the iPAVe are capable of continuously measuring pavement response at traffic speed. This means more data points per kilometre can be safely measured. This results in a significantly more intensive insight of structural condition, thus identifying areas of weakness that could go undetected by an FWD or visual condition assessment.

The Walking Profiler G3 is a high-precision measurement instrument for collecting surface condition information, at true walking speed

How is the collected data managed and interpreted?

The golden rule of road asset management systems is to practice good data management. ARRB’s specialist vehicles all automatically stream location, progress, data quality, and system health metrics to a cloud-based quality management program, accessible by the data collection manager. Good data management is especially true when working with big data. For example, the iPAVe measures profile/deflection bowl data at 25 mm intervals, records high-resolution images every 10 m, while the LCMS has a resolution of 1 mm x 1 mm, all of which translates to around 1 GB of data per lane kilometre.

The physical storage of large volumes of data can be risky and expensive. We employ a webbased solution called the Hawkeye Insight. The processed data is published to a secure cloud-based server, where users can access the information from anywhere in the world over the internet. Additional information, such as classified traffic counts and safety indices, can be added. In essence, data saves lives by combining machine intelligence with human intelligence.

Where are your technologies currently being used?

Our technologies are deployed all over the world. While we have a major presence in the USA, Australia, Asia and Europe, we also have global reach through our distributor network, which spans 23 countries. Closer to home, our technologies are used to support numerous provincial and municipal departments’ RAMS – the most recent being eThekwini metro. We also offer our services and equipment to other companies, such as consulting engineers, contractors and civil engineering laboratories.

Contractors realise the benefit of owning the equipment – such as the Walking Profiler – as it saves them time and, therefore, money, by using it as an integral part of their construction quality control. With the equipment on-site, there is no need to wait for external service provider availability and they can use it from project to project, enabling the initial investment to be paid off quickly and preventing unnecessary reworks.

Does ARRB provide solutions for gravel roads?

We most certainly do! Unlike paved roads, the condition and profile of gravel roads can change, quite literally, overnight. Experience shows that response type road roughness meters are best suited for measuring unpaved road conditions quickly and objectively.

We provide the Roughometer 3, which is a Class 3 IRI measuring device.

The Roughometer consists of a highprecision accelerometer that directly measures vehicle axle movement, thereby eliminating uncertainties such as suspension and passenger weight. It is integrated with GPS so the data can be formatted into custom graphs, tables and maps. This can be used in conjunction with an imaging system to create a permanent record of the road and undertake post-rated condition assessments, which is the norm in many countries.

The Roughometer is also used extensively in Southern and Central Africa, including Namibia, Mozambique and Kenya, confirming its robustness to withstand tough conditions.

The Hawkeye 1000 digital laser profiler fitted to this vehicle measures longitudinal profiles, roughness and macrotexture

What is your R&D team focusing on at present?

Our R&D team is constantly innovating, trying to find simpler and better ways to help our customers. We are continuously developing and updating our software to ensure we meet our customer expectations. We are also finalising an automated systematic TMH9 visual assessment capability. The Roughometer 4 prototype is currently undergoing initial testing and is expected to be released in 2021.

What is ARRB’s strategic focus for the balance of 2020 and going into 2021?

Our focus is on our employees and our customers. While we are living in uncertain times, we remain focused on our core purpose: to be the leaders in our field of expertise. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us all to re-evaluate our strategic position and approach. To be successful in a highly volatile industry, staying steps ahead by rapidly adapting to changing circumstances is key to success and sustainability.

We will continue to invest in R&D, new technology and our people to maintain growth and business continuity. It is fundamental that we keep abreast of local and international trends as we strive towards our objective of being the global leader of pavement technological solutions.