Pavement Inspection and Road Inventory of 14,500 kilometers highway in Qatar

Services included developing comprehensive Pavement Inspection and Right-of-Way Asset Data and Condition information for 14,500 km of road lanes using vehicles equipped with high-tech sensors. 
The project's scope included inventory of roads and road assets, condition monitoring, and supply and commissioning of RAMS software, and involved several key tasks:

• Establish Asset Inventory and management tools for the pavement and other road assets.
• Survey full road network conditions for Surface and Structural Characteristics.
• Provide software solutions that analyze pavement condition and data, generating output reports in various formats to support different management levels of the organization in optimizing their strategies for maintaining and reconstructing roads and associated assets.
• Develop reports available for senior management to develop strategies and technical staff for planning and operational purposes.
• Ashghal Staff Training, as well as participation in conferences and several meetings with this Public Body.

The technology used included state-of-the-art devices for road surveys.

• Lidar Mobile Mapping Systems
• Multifunction device for surface characteristics based on Pavemerics LCMS sensor
• Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD)
• Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
• Friction tester device (Griptester)

As it was the first time a similar project was developed in Qatar, several challenges arose.

Road network: Ashghal's responsibility for the road network includes the entire Qatar network, which comprises a mix of inter-city and urban roads, down to small sections for each building and house in the country and the city of Doha.
LRS. Linear referencing system: While LRS on inter-city roads was already developed, the inclusion of small streets in the LRS scheme was a challenge.
Comprehensive study: The project included the creation of a road inventory and comprehensive condition monitoring. This involved conducting surveys using a variety of devices. Coordination of these surveys and alignment of the results required the use of fleet tracking systems, accurate distance measuring systems, calibration of all devices, and minor adjustments to ensure all data accurately represented the road condition for each 100-meter section across a 14,500 kilometer road network.

Modern road maintenance requires tools that optimize maintenance and operations for efficiency and sustainability. The World Bank laid the groundwork for pavement management systems with its HDM (Highway Development and Management) III software tool, and since then, significant advances have been made.

Today's Road Asset Management Systems (RAMS) include all types of assets, not just pavements. Advanced road inspection technology now allows for the inspection of pavements without disrupting users and at an affordable cost. The combination of sophisticated software tools and accurate road condition data enables RAMS to optimize road maintenance, achieving savings of up to 40%.

The Road Asset Management System provided by Applus+ enabled our client to compile KPIs on road conditions, analyze different maintenance strategies, and make objective decisions. It also provided transparency, defined road condition goals, and tracked progress through recurring inspections or by building customized evolution curves to improve the RAMS further.

Optimizing maintenance operations was a step toward greater sustainability, reducing costs, and minimizing inconvenience to drivers.

Future actions included introducing similar techniques for additional road assets and further optimizing by creating customized evolution curves for different roads.

Applus+ has over 30 years of experience in providing road management services to various road authorities and has developed projects in several countries, including Spain, Portugal, France, Bosnia, Albania, Algeria, the USA, Panama, Colombia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.