It seems that South Australia is leading the way when it comes to road management and maintenance. Using iPAVE, a world-first tech developed in Denmark, the technology has been fitted to a truck and is currently being used in South Australia for the first time. Its job? To collect vital road data across all state-maintained roads and highways.
It does this by using a series of lasers, video cameras and ground-penetrating radar to assess structural conditions underneath, as well as assess what’s happening on the road’s surface. This information will then be used to assess the bearing capacity of the pavement, including the impact of flooding, and will be useful to help prioritise upgrades and determine future road maintenance.
The iPAVE truck will cover nearly 400 roads across South Australia, and given that it can collect data in a single pass at highway speeds, there is no need for traffic control. It’s already covered thousands of kilometres, with the survey due to be completed in April 2024.
This latest system, which is the third iPAVE truck, follows two previous models that have already collected data across more than 400,000 kilometres of Australian and New Zealand roads. Could this spell the end of potholes? Let’s hope they send it up to the Bruce in Queensland next.
