AUTOMATED, HIGH SPEED, NON-CONTACT MEASUREMENT OF TRANSVERSE PROFILE FOR ASPHALT REHABILITATION CALCULATIONS

The basis for good pavement management is good inventory and section data. This data cover physical characteristics, such as roughness, surface condition, structural adequacy and geometrics, and other data such as traffic and costs of construction and maintenance. One of the key pieces of geometric data, transverse profile, could, until recently, only be measured by rod and level survey; this is generally too costly and time consuming. Now, however, the automatic road analyzer (aran) unit counts this among its extensive inventory and data collection capabilities. It can measure transverse profile, at travel speeds, using non-contact acoustic probes. The data are recorded in digital form on magnetic tape for direct computer processing and anlaysis. Examples are shown in the paper of verification checks on the aran results, computer graphic plots of typical cross sections and computerized quantity calculations for rehabilitation designs. (a) (TRRL)