Skip to main content

Measuring durability of Australia's roads

The Danish Road Directorate has signed a contract with the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland regarding the measurements of more than 16,000km of roads.
April 5, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The Danish Traffic Speed Deflectometer on its way to Australia
The Danish Traffic Speed Deflectometer on its way to Australia

The 2284 Danish Road Directorate has signed a contract with the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland regarding the measurements of more than 16,000km of roads.

The Directorate sees the cooperation as a great step forward for the Danish road research, and as a consequence of the agreement the Danish Traffic Speed Deflectometer has been shipped to Australia to measure the bearing capacity and hence the durability of the roads.

This task has already been successfully undertaken on the Danish road network and "holds a promise of saving a lot of money on road maintenance."

The Danish Road director, Per Jacobsen said:

"This agreement is a giant boost for the Road Directorate as it demonstrates our ability to act in the global market for road research and technology.

"And the job is also to the benefit of the Danish road sector, as we are constantly striving to perform the best possible measuring to enable the right prioritising of road maintenance.

The assignment can help us with this by providing important data and further more we will be able to use the equipment while it is winter time in Denmark."

The Traffic Speed Deflectometer moves at traffic speed as opposed to earlier versions (falling-weight deflectometer) that required blocking the road and disturbing road users. It was developed in cooperation with 2283 Greenwood Engineering and with support from the 2282 Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs.

The assignment is due to finish in late 2010.

Related Content

  • Intelligent monitoring of concrete pours cuts time on site
    April 12, 2016
    Intelligent monitoring of concrete strengths is helping contractors shave weeks off construction programmes, according to formwork specialist Doka. Its Concremote system measures the temperature of the concrete, converts that to predicted strength and allows the contractor to strike the formwork when the concrete is ready – rather than waiting for a set number of days. “Concretemote is being used on 20 to 25 projects,” said Doka’s director of research and development Johann Peneder.
  • Weigh-in-motion key to maximising road life
    February 24, 2012
    The market and technology for weigh-in-motion systems continues to evolve – Mike Woof writes. for both mature and developing highway infrastructure networks, traffic densities play an important role in determining road wear and life. Monitoring traffic volumes and individual vehicle weight is crucial for ensuring roads can cope in the long term and that maintenance can be planned, while the problem of overloading can be eliminated.
  • Roads for the future
    July 31, 2012
    Speakers at the 3rd European Road Congress looked at ways of preparing infrastructure to cater for future demands. Patrick Smith reports Road accidents in Europe can be reduced substantially, but vehicles will have to make more use of technology, and they will cost more. The problems will not be made any easier with the knowledge that road transport is set to double between 2040 and 2050. These were just some of the forecasts made at the 3rd European Road Congress, held in Brussels, Belgium, a key road sect
  • Futureproofing UK construction equipment resilience
    May 5, 2021
    Rob Oliver is the longstanding CEO of the Construction Equipment Association (CEA), the UK trade association for the UK construction equipment industry. Guy Woodford recently caught up with him to discuss the industry’s health and the key issues facing the CEA and its members in 2021 and beyond.