Trial of the use of RFID tags in highway pavement maintenance

The goal of this project was to ascertain the feasibility of an innovative method of recording and increasing access to pavement surface construction data. The project explored the use of radio-frequency (RFID) tags to store and deliver pavement construction and materials data. Specifically, the project looked at the feasibility of burying RFIDs in pavement surfaces during the actual paving process, to be read later at traffic speed utilizing a long-range RFID reader and vehicle mounted antenna. The results of the study indicated that data could be read successfully from a high percentage of the RFID tags, at highway traffic speed. The study validates the feasibility of utilizing this system in asset management, to keep an on-site account of pavement maintenance and construction activities which could also be linked remotely to pavement management systems.