Skip to main content

Ontario MOT upgrades highway infrastructure data collection

Geo-intelligence and asset integrity solutions provider Fugro has supplied the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), Canada, with its automatic road analysers Aran 7000 and Aran 9000 to collect critical highway infrastructure data. MTO uses the systems as complementary parts of their fleet of asset management tools and utilises the data to assess the health of Ontario’s highway network in its efforts to extend the lifespan of its road network and infrastructure. The Aran 7000 is a fully port
December 14, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Geo-intelligence and asset integrity solutions provider Fugro has supplied the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), Canada, with its automatic road analysers Aran 7000 and Aran 9000 to collect critical highway infrastructure data.

MTO uses the systems as complementary parts of their fleet of asset management tools and utilises the data to assess the health of Ontario’s highway network in its efforts to extend the lifespan of its road network and infrastructure.  

The Aran 7000 is a fully portable road profiling solution for roughness, smoothness, rutting and texture measurement while the Aran 9000 is a fully integrated data collection system equipped with lasers, cameras and accelerometers to measure a road’s profile and to provide an inventory of road assets. The devices enable the Ministry to obtain continuous and improved infrastructure data on highways and roadways, where conducting a manual survey is time consuming and unsafe for staff.

As technology has evolved, MTO’s ability to measure conditions accurately has increased and currently it is updating existing paving contracts to include a requirement for automated data collection. Pavement smoothness is of high importance for MTO and the travelling public. Each time a contractor completes a construction, resurfacing, or rehabilitation project, they are required to use an inertial profiler to measure the surface quality using the International Roughness Index (IRI).

According to Jason Wade, pavement evaluation supervisor for MTO, combining pavement data collection activities using the Aran 9000 and 7000enables them to provide the most cost effective and appropriate solution, in the right place and at the right time. The two platforms provide seamless data integration into MTO’s Vision and iVision specialist software and web application systems. This allows MTO to make well informed decisions on pavement performance and rehabilitation.

Related Content

  • Keeping fans on course for big golf date
    September 3, 2014
    Traffic planners are taking an intelligent approach to ensure golf fans heading to the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in Scotland later this month don’t find themselves bunkered by congestion. Organisers will use full matrix LED signs supplied by Mobile Traffic Solutions (MTS) to ensure the logistical operation runs smoothly. Some of the traffic management around the Perthshire venue, as well as the routes to and from park and ride sites in Perth, Kinross and Stirling, are being handled by the AA. They have follow
  • Benefits of traffic data sharing with app developers
    November 10, 2015
    Timothy Compston finds out if exchanging traffic and road condition data with private app developers makes sense for both drivers and road authorities. Much has been said about the potential benefits for authorities in sharing data with traffic and navigation app developers, and receiving ‘crowdsourced’ information in return – so how is it working in practice?
  • San Diego: Let there be (street)light
    March 30, 2020
    The influence of intelligent streetlights is spreading. David Crawford finds that San Diego’s deployment – and attendant legislation – may offer a blueprint for other cities going forward
  • Investment and innovation the future of ITS
    January 31, 2012
    Cisco's Paul Brubaker, former administrator of the US Department of Transportation's (USDOT's) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), takes a look at how the ITS sector is starting to attract the attention of major corporations and what this will mean for intelligent transportation in the coming years