Automated road condition monitoring in Dubai

The Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai has developed the automated system for assessing the condition of the roads and managing their maintenance, in order to achieve the relevant strategic objectives.

The system achieved a rationalization in operating expenses corresponding to 78% of the value of the annual maintenance work, by following smart software in the optimal planning of maintenance work, which the new system demonstrates compared to the traditional method in this field.

The system is considered a comprehensive program to automate and manage the evaluation of the performance of the functional and structural pavement condition of the road network through software applications, such as automated pavement management systems.

Hamad Al Shehhi, Director of Road Maintenance and Facilities Department at the Traffic and Roads Authority, said the system is the digital (electronic) version of roads with artificial intelligence techniques to apply the authorities’ and maintenance management’s strategies and policies to assess the road. network and choose the optimal form of maintenance within the allocated budgets for maintaining the road network.

He added, “The development is subject to major challenges in view of the continued expansion of the network through the construction of new roads, represented by the exposure of the network to various factors that lead to the appearance of some damages due to its obsolescence due to environmental factors or operating loads.”

Al-Shehhi emphasized the provision of a software mechanism to achieve the transition to the digital version of the roads, which programmed the identification of annual maintenance needs and their implementation based on the planning carried out through these modern systems, in order to please and satisfy road users first and rationalize operating expenses secondly.

He stated that the system has been developed to work on distributing the budget on the network maintenance activities to ensure that it keeps the quality optimal and makes the best use of the available budget.

He explained that the automated system for assessing the condition of roads and managing their maintenance is a smart and technical system with laser scanning techniques to configure the digital version of roads and to verify the life cycle of pavement assets and their maintenance in the Department of Road. Maintenance and construction Parts of the road network in the system have a fixed digital label in the system database, which represents the smallest part that can be used in planning maintenance work, since the network in the digital version of the roads is divided into parts that do not exceed 100 m tracks, and this is to increase the data accuracy by 99% by raising the reliability index. The accuracy of the data and its agreement with the sites to more than 97%, the accuracy of locating damage on the network through automatic detection of damage, the accuracy of determining the optimal type of maintenance on the network, and the rationalization of operating expenses by carry out maintenance in places that have the optimal priority for maintenance, while making the best use of the budget, and thus it became possible. in the system to get an inventory of road length data according to their functional importance such as highways, main roads and internal roads, as the digital version of the roads Automatic help.

Al-Shehhi concluded by emphasizing the economic feasibility of developing the digital version of the roads and smart maintenance management systems to maintain the network, which are summarized in a number of benefits: keeping pace with the industrial revolution in the application of digital technology to create the digital version of the roads, and achieve rationalization in maintenance costs.

The automated road condition assessment and maintenance management system is an intelligent system with laser scanning techniques.