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

  • IntelliDrive and HOT lanes - the next generation?
    January 30, 2012
    Janet Banner, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and Christopher Hill, Mixon Hill, Inc., outline efforts to explore the use of IntelliDrive technologies in HOT lane applications. On 21 October last year more than 100 transportation professionals came together for a workshop, either in person or via a webinar, to discuss the potential role of IntelliDriveSM technologies in enhancing the operations of High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes. The discussions focused on a White Paper, commissioned by the Metropoli
  • Real time active traffic management improves travel times
    July 17, 2012
    Traffic management centres (TMC) have traditionally served to provide surveillance and responses to traffic incidents and recurring and non-recurring changes in road networks. Typically, a TMC collected field data from the roadway and transit infrastructure and provided the integration necessary for operators to see what was happening and then coordinate a response. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) guided operators on how to respond to a given situation. It eventually became impractical for TMC operat
  • Michael Baker International to aid SEPTA’s ‘Rebuilding the System’ program
    August 17, 2016
    As part of its Rebuilding the System Program, the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in the US has awarded Michael Baker International a three-year, US$8-million contract to provide general engineering, construction management and inspection services to a range of SEPTA projects throughout south-eastern Pennsylvania. As part of the contract, the Michael Baker team will support SEPTA in their management of complex construction projects with the goal of ensuring quality, enhanci
  • Remote remedies help US authorities identify bridge deficiencies
    September 6, 2017
    Every day 185 million vehicles – cars, trucks, school buses, emergency response units - cross one or more of America’s 55,710 'structurally compromised' steel and concrete road bridges, the highest concentration of which are in Iowa (nearly 5,000), Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Nearly 2,000 of these crossings are located on interstate highways, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association's recent analysis of the US Department of Transportation's 2016 National Bridge Inventory.