Major changes are on the horizon for the road condition surveys. Over 70% of new cars are predicted to be equipped with lane-departure warning systems by 2023. These require good-quality road markings, which will increase the demand for them to be properly maintained. In order to do this road authorities will be dependent on quality survey data to ensure both the day contrast and night retroreflectivity of markings meet standards. Until now, surveys have been constrained by inefficient single-line surveys, requiring multiple passes of each lane to capture all the measurements. This meant more vehicles and operators, increasing costs.
50% – The reduction in survey time achievable using the RetroTek-D retroreflectometer
Reflective Measurement Systems Ireland, assisted by Enterprise Ireland and Horizon 2020 funding has tackled this issue head on. RMS have developed the RetroTek-D retroreflectometer which is billed as a ‘game-changer’ for road surveys. Independently certified to European Standard EN1436 and ASTM E 1710, it can measure all road lane markings across a full lane width in a single pass at traffic speeds, with a very high degree of accuracy, resulting in a 50% reduction in the survey time/distance. A single operator on a single shift can double the length of roads surveyed with no increase in operating costs.
The RetroTek-D mobile retroreflectometer combined with QuickView-Pro reporting software provides rapid analysis of data with GPS tagging and video records to simplify planning corrective maintenance. The survey reports available in csv, PDF, SHP, kml formats, provide RL values, day contrast ratios, line type, and colour with GPS coordinates. This allows maintenance efforts to be safely prioritised, reducing the cost of road maintenance and minimising disruption to road users.