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WDM partnerships target safer roads

UK highway asset management specialist WDM is working in partnership with a British Government agency as well as the New Zealand Road Transport Agency to help reduce road deaths. One key focus that the partners have developed in New Zealand is a skid resistance policy, with a special Sideway-force Routine Investigation Machines (SCRIM) built to evaluate road surface performance. Using the SCRIM equipment to monitor New Zealand’s state highway network has helped identify areas of poor skid resistance, allow
March 25, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
UK highway asset management specialist 7604 WDM is working in partnership with a British Government agency as well as the New Zealand Road Transport Agency to help reduce road deaths.

One key focus that the partners have developed in New Zealand is a skid resistance policy, with a special Sideway-force Routine Investigation Machines (SCRIM) built to evaluate road surface performance. Using the SCRIM equipment to monitor New Zealand’s state highway network has helped identify areas of poor skid resistance, allowing repairs to be made. This has helped reduce crashes in wet weather by 40%, providing a major road safety gain for New Zealand and delivering a cost-benefit ratio of 30 in all.

Meanwhile, similar benefits have been seen in the UK by its Department of Transport (DfT). WDM is exhibiting one of its mini SCRIM machines at Intertraffic. A road safety event organised jointly in the UK from 18-20th May by WDM, the 6296 New Zealand Transport Agency and the Chartered Institution of Highway Engineers & Transportation.
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