International Road Dynamics Inc (IRD) announced today the award of a contract for weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems installation, maintenance, and data services, with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Infrastructure Research and Development.
Under this contract, IRD will be issued task orders to provide installation, maintenance, repairs, and verification that data collected from the WIM systems at long-term pavement performance (LTPP) test sites across the United States and Canada meet performance specifications for Type I WIM systems established by American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard E1318-09.
The contract is a task-order-based, indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity agreement covering a sixty six month period. The potential maximum value of the project is $4.9 Million.
The primary goal of the LTPP programme is to understand how and why pavements perform as they do. To accomplish this goal, the programme collects pavement performance data using standard data collection procedures and protocols on a variety of pavement types. Since 1989, the LTPP programme has collected this information at 2,509 pavement test sections throughout North America and Canada.
Test sections are designated to be part of the General Pavement Study (GPS) experiments or the Specific Pavement Study (SPS) experiments. The GPS test sections were established on existing pavements that used an experimental matrix to guide the selection of the test sections that would cover, to the greatest extent possible, the range of factors required to explain pavement performance. Test sections for SPS experiments were built to specific designs and thicknesses, as defined in the experimental plans. The pavement performance collected at the GPS and SPS test sections are stored in the LTPP database and are available to pavement engineers and researchers worldwide to advance the science of pavement engineering.
A key factor in understanding pavement performance is having accurate and reliable monitoring traffic data, specifically classification and weight data. The weigh-in-motion (WIM) equipment used to collect this data will be provided and installed by IRD and evaluated and maintained routinely. IRD will also provide the in-depth knowledge and expertise of the WIM equipment and the necessary industry technical resources that are not readily available in-house at FHWA.
Mr Terry Bergan, IRD pesident and CEO, noted "IRD is proud to be selected for this important project with the Federal Highway Administration. We have been working directly with FHWA on LTPP installations and maintenance since 2004. We are looking forward to extending our long term, successful relationship, and consider this a very significant project for IRD as a nation-wide, multi-year, WIM installation, maintenance, and traffic data services provider."
