INDUSTRY NEWS
Road Resurfacing Simplified
Critical data collected at highway speed
T
raditionally, highway resurfacing
projects have been a challenge,
not only for the contractor, but
the inconvenienced community
through which the road passes. To col-
lect the project data needed to perform
the resurface, typically required lane
closures and a team of surveyors collect-
ing data points from along the side of
the road with diverted traffic whizzing
past. It was a slow, cumbersome, and
dangerous process, that affected the dai-
ly commuter flow and affected the con-
tractor’s project timeline.
But things are better.
Designed to work at the speed of
highway traffic, there is a resurfacing
system intended to safely assist road re-
surfacing contractors without the need
for road or lane closures. The system is
fully automated with GNSS and sonic
tracker control. It is designed to deliv-
er accurate thickness boundaries while
maintaining projected yield. It elimi-
nates the need for survey strings, aver-
aging skis, and lasers.
“In most situations, it’s inconvenient
or impossible, to shut down a road and
www.callape.com
By Jeff Winke
map its surface using traditional point-
to-point surveying methods,” says Mur-
ray Lodge, senior vice president and
general manager of the Topcon Posi-
tioning Group Construction Business
Unit. “We’ve developed a way to scan
roads at highway speeds with no need
for lane closures, crash trucks, escorts
or any other typical road survey collec-
tion obstacles. The system maps the ex-
isting surface elevations — with many
more points captured versus what can
be expected with traditional tools —
providing more accurate data needed to
confidently estimate materials, as well
as form the basis of the final design sur-
face.”
The system uses a scanner that is at-
tached to a vehicle, typically a pick-up
truck. The downward facing laser scan-
ner connects to a standard tow hitch
or the front of any vehicle with stan-
dard tow hooks. With using standard
tow hitches and hooks, the scanner
is designed to be easy to remove and
adapt to any vehicle, thus eliminating
the need to have a dedicated vehicle to
operate. The unit is designed to collect
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millions of points at scan rates of up to
100 times per second.
Cruising at normal highways speeds,
the 3-D surface scanning is designed to
cover miles of road in a short time. The
collected data is automatically time-
stamped and stored for the next step of
data management and point cloud gen-
eration. The mounted scanner captures
millions of data points that are collected
safely from the cab of the truck or car.
Topcon points out that the driver can
begin a road-surface surveying session
by simply clicking the start button on
their laptop computer and go.
The graphical collection software fea-
tures an interface status bar that indi-
cates the optimum speed for collecting
road information based on the project
requirements.
“I like that we can collect accurate
topos while driving 50 miles per hour,”
stated Chris Smithson, project manager
with Big Creek Construction, Lorena,
TX. “We used it recently on a 3.5-mile
section of Ranch Road 2838 in Mex-
ai, TX where we were able to give the
State more accurate cross sections and
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