HiSPEQ - Hi-speed survey Specifications, Explanation and Quality

Initially providing data on the shape and condition of the road surface, in recent years these have expanded to measure structural performance and the structure of the pavement itself. High speed surveys bring significant advantages to condition assessment but they use different techniques and provide a wide range of different data types. Many policies are applied across Europe to define the requirements for the survey equipment, the surveys and the data delivered. This causes problems for those commissioning the surveys, those undertaking the surveys and those using the data.

The Hi-SPEQ initiative aims to deliver improvements to the process of describing high-speed survey equipment, specifying the requirement for surveys/survey equipment and the regimes that should be applied to ensure the quality of data delivered. HI-SPEQ will also improve the ability to obtain good value from the measured data by making use of the best derived parameters to assess condition within asset management systems. In summary:

• Utilizing stakeholder consultation, current best practice and the extensive experience of our team in developing and delivering high-speed surveys, survey equipment and survey specifications, Hi-SPEQ will identify the data that can be collected on road networks to measure surface condition, structural condition and road structure at high speed and the type of equipment that can be used to collect this data. This will be used to determine the requirements for, and the capability of, current high speed survey equipment to deliver interactive templates and best practice guidance for describing the equipment used on the network.

• Building on the equipment capability and descriptions developed above, Hi-SPEQ will investigate how network surveys can be specified to deliver the needs of road authorities and, using current examples, will clarify how such surveys can be commissioned and provide interactive templates for specifying surveys of surface and structural condition on the European road network, accompanied by guidance.

• Having explored the equipment and the survey processes Hi-SPEQ will then use the experience of the team and the lessons learned in real world routine surveys to identify the processes that should be applied to ensure that these surveys meet their expected levels of quality, and through this provide guidance to help Authorities specify suitable QA regimes for their network surveys.

• Finally, Hi-SPEQ will explore the way that high speed survey data can be processed and analyzed in order to recommend the most effective ways to convert survey data into meaningful condition parameters that can be input to asset management systems.

A key focus of Hi-SPEQ will be the delivery of outputs that can be implemented by road administrations via interactive guidance and templates that can be taken forward by individual road administrations to form the basis for developing strategies and specifications for their own network surveys. This will be accompanied by promulgation of the results of the work across a wide range of stakeholders and the provision of training materials to allow road administrations to further disseminate and implement the results within their own organizations.

Partners

• Transport Research Laboratory (TRL)

• Fugro Aperio

• Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)

• COWI

• Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)

• Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG)

Website: www.hispeq.com
Fugro Contact: Mark Thomas (m.thomas@fugro.com)