Yotta’s Laser Scanner maps Southampton’s roads

Southampton City Council (UK) has contracted highway geospatial surveying specialist Yotta DCL to help it improve its highway maintenance process with road surface condition surveys using state-of-the-art laser technology. Yotta DCL will survey 300km of the City’s roads using its $2million ARAN survey vehicle that uses innovative laser scanning and precision GPS systems.

Yotta DCL is just one of three UK companies equipped to perform these surveys as part of a Government-specified programme called Surface Condition Assessment for the National Network of Roads (SCANNER). The SCANNER surveys will provide Southampton City Council with accurate consistent data to enable the Highways team to target planned maintenance programmes and budgets to where they will deliver most benefit.

“Yotta DCL is a strategic partner for the Council. We have worked with the company’s specialists for many years and they are familiar with our network. We utilise the company’s surveying expertise in many areas and we also use Yotta DCL’s MARCHpms software as our Pavement Management System application. It, therefore, makes sense for us to contract the company for SCANNER surveys,” says Will Bull, UKPMS (UK Pavement Management System) Officer, Southampton City Council.

The highly specialised ARAN vehicle is an Anglo-Canadian development equipped with an advanced surface laser scanner that captures surface data with its precise location identified by a military-grade satellite positioning system. The accurate location information allows the survey data to be matched with other highways data such as records from on-foot highways defects surveys. Data captured by the ARAN vehicle shows defects such as wheelpath rutting, edge deterioration and cracks as well as the road geometry and longitudinal profile. Once processed, Southampton City Council loads the data into its MARCHpms application.

“The SCANNER data helps us to develop our work programmes and we are able to incorporate the condition information within our Highway Asset Management System. All of this helps us to target planned maintenance schemes where they will deliver maximum benefit. The data also ties in with our SCRIM (sideway-force coefficient routine investigation machine) survey thresholds to help us with developing our Skidding Resistance Policy. With the data we can easily pinpoint the precise chainage for applying antiskid surfacing,” concludes Will Bull.