Caring for the roads

Caring for the roads is one among Wagga Wagga City Council’s most significant tasks. The process behind sustaining our extensive road network may perhaps be more complicated than this first appears.

With 2288 kilometres of roads to look after within Wagga Wagga’s nearby government area, maintaining the network may be a critical element of Council’s property management strategy. Far from selecting which roads to keep on an ad hoc schedule, there’s a very detailed strategy behind it.
Softwares and experts
The procedure begins with laser x-ray path profiling, where every 36 months an automated profilometer machine scans the surfaces on the road network, detecting flaws. The device provides information so that roads to be condition-rated using a scale between 1–5; ONE being excellent, 5 currently being very poor. This gives Council’s Maintenance Management team an awesome understanding of the condition with the total road network – knowledge that allows them to develop some sort of draft road maintenance course.

The next step requires an in-person site validation. Jamie Harwood, Engineer – Maintenance Management, is among Council’s experts who buckle as much as ‘read the road’.

“Every 12 months, surveillance officers head out to drive your whole network, checking the path surface and base illnesses, ” said Mr Harwood.
LocalMAY 15, 2020 2: 05 PM AESTShare
Reading roads: how Council keeps your road network






Looking after the roads is one of Wagga Wagga City Council’s most important tasks. The process behind maintaining our extensive road network may be more complicated than them first appears.

With 2288 kilometres of roads to look after within Wagga Wagga’s neighborhood government area, maintaining the network is a critical element of Council’s assets management strategy. Far from selecting which roads to maintain on an ad hoc schedule, there’s a very in depth strategy behind it.

Robots and experts
The method begins with laser x-ray roads profiling, where every 36 months an automated profilometer gadget scans the surfaces on the road network, detecting blemishes. The device provides information which allows roads to be condition-rated using a scale between 1–5; 1 being excellent, 5 appearing very poor. This gives Council’s Maintenance Management team a fantastic understanding of the condition of the total road network – knowledge that enables them to develop a draft road maintenance software.

The next step consists of an in-person site validation. Jamie Harwood, Professional – Maintenance Management, is considered one of Council’s experts who buckle up to ‘read the road’.

“Every year or so, surveillance officers head out to drive the whole network, checking the street surface and base ailments, ” said Mr Harwood.



“When you evaluate the road you can activities whether it’s a put faitth on or surface issue from your pattern of cracks as well as the surface shape. If it’s a new base problem, we’ll should fix the entire road with the bottom to the leading; if it’s a surface area issue, we just need to resurface it with some sort of binder and aggregate. ”

Roads priorities
Once the street assessment process is finished, the roads with the individual condition rankings – gathered through the robotic profiling and expert site validation – tend to be grouped into categories.

Within each category it has an acceptable threshold rating, which helps determine the tracks requiring attention. Some in the parameters Council work together with to prioritise proposed roadworks usually are traffic volume, traffic masses, road deterioration and visitors speed.

“When it pertains to speed, for example, we give high-speed regional roads a top priority, ” said Mister Harwood.

“Vehicles hitting a pothole at 100 km/h are from greater risk of wounds than those encountering similar pothole at 50 km/h. ”
Creating decisions
Once all data is consolidated, the team makes an informed decision with regards to the treatment for each particular road segment – choosing between general maintenance, resealing, rehab, or reconstruction.

Mr Harwood was content to quell concerns that Council spent almost all of its efforts maintaining smaller side streets rather than larger, busier streets.

“The smaller streets that are getting maintained require much less work as it is mostly preventive maintenance, ” claimed Mr Harwood.

“This may give the impression that we’re only focusing on small street sections since we can cover a lot more road network and can easily move site to internet site.

“In fact, we spend a large proportion of Council’s spending budget on major road systems – recent examples are generally Farrer Road, Holbrook Path, Lake Albert Road, Fernleigh Street and Elizabeth Avenue. ”.
https://www.tbtscietech.com/Road-Surface-Profiler-pl3204345.html 201911ld