Skip to main content

Road condition assessment made easy

Swedish geographic modelling specialist Blom is cooperating with a Finnish company, Suomen Kuntotekniikka, on road condition assessment projects, using BlomSTREET imagery which enables visual assessment of road segments where repairs are required, providing budgetary analysis of necessary maintenance and construction tasks. BlomSTREET imagery provides automatic traffic sign inventory using country-specific, official traffic sign libraries. The company says that experience from recent projects demonstrate
December 15, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Swedish geographic modelling specialist Blom is cooperating with a Finnish company, Suomen Kuntotekniikka, on road condition assessment projects, using BlomSTREET imagery which enables visual assessment of road segments where repairs are required, providing budgetary analysis of necessary maintenance and construction tasks.

BlomSTREET imagery provides automatic traffic sign inventory using country-specific, official traffic sign libraries. The company says that experience from recent projects demonstrates that the automatic method provides a completeness of better than 90 per cent for an inventory project.  Problems caused by dense vegetation, partial signs and other intrusions can be improved using manual editing.

A standard traffic sign inventory project includes capturing coordinates (x,y,z) and orientation of the sign, standard deviation, sign type and any text contained on the sign itself.  Once images have been captured for inventory and assessment purposes they can then also be used for many alternative functions, such as city planning and 3D modelling.

"The high quality BlomSTREET imagery has been a great tool for interpreting the condition of streets. Together with ground-penetrating radar data, it allows quick identification where streets are in need of repair,” states Jari Marjeta of Suomen Kuntotekniikka.

Related Content

  • Rekor patents to boost traffic analystics
    March 4, 2025
    Tech allows agencies to 'predict, manage and mitigate traffic issues in real time'
  • High-speed WIM moves onto the main highway
    May 24, 2016
    High-speed weigh-in-motion is starting to make its mark on both sides of the Atlantic. As a transit country the Czech Republic experiences a large number of overloaded vehicles, which greatly increase highway maintenance costs. This prompted its Transport Ministry to trial an extension of the capabilities of the existing truck tolling system to allow the dynamic high-speed weighing of cargo vehicles. In effect the tolling enforcement gantries become weigh-in-motion (WIM) locations.
  • Commercial telematics shipments to exceed 6.4 million by 2016
    May 18, 2012
    A new report from ABI Research predicts that global shipments of commercial telematics equipment will increase from 1.94 million in 2011 to 6.43 million in 2016. While North America is still the leading market, Asia-Pacific is set for strong growth driven by economic expansion, a booming automotive industry, and urgent requirements to use increasingly scarce resources more efficiently.
  • Road user charging potential solution to transportation problems
    December 14, 2012
    A number of new and highly significant open road tolling schemes have just been launched or are soon to ‘go live’. Systems of road user charging are flexing their muscles as the means to solve politically sensitive transportation problems, reports Jon Masters. Gothenburg, January 2013, will be the time and place for the launch of the next city congestion charging scheme in Europe. In a separate development, Los Angeles County’s tolled Metro ExpressLanes began operating in November 2012 – the latest in a ser