Skip to main content

Mobile LiDAR equipment working in Pennsylvania

Michael Baker International completed a US$7 million project for the US state of Pennsylvania collecting nearly 20 million data fields from over 8,600 traffic signals During the year-long project, the engineering, planning and consulting business worked with PennDOT’s Traffic Signal Asset Management System. It collected nearly 20 million data fields for each of the 8,623 traffic signals analysed. The data has populated a centralised database to support PennDOT’s planning, design, maintenance and oper
February 6, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Michael Baker International completed a US$7 million project for the US state of Pennsylvania collecting nearly 20 million data fields from over 8,600 traffic signals

During the year-long project, the engineering, planning and consulting business worked with 4907 PennDOT’s Traffic Signal Asset Management System. It collected nearly 20 million data fields for each of the 8,623 traffic signals analysed.

The data has populated a centralised database to support PennDOT’s planning, design, maintenance and operational decision-making.

“Pennsylvania is unique in that its traffic signals are owned and maintained by Commonwealth [state] municipalities and not PennDOT, which has resulted in varying standards of maintenance and operation care from municipality-to-municipality,” said Steve Barber, vice president and Harrisburg office executive for Michael Baker International.

Michael Baker team employed its mobile Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-equipped vans to efficiently collect all necessary data. Since all LiDAR data was collected at the intersections, PennDOT can now review data on other non-signal infrastructure assets at the intersections.

In 2013, Pennsylvania passed Act 89 that calls for an additional $2.4 billion funding over five years. PennDOT identified traffic signals as an area of necessary investment for this spend.

PennDOT established the Green Light-Go programme to manage the dedicated traffic signal funding and corresponding maintenance and operations projects. A by-product of this programme was implementation of the Traffic Signal Asset Management System, for which Michael Baker led the data collection through coordination with the PennDOT Central Office and each of their engineering districts.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IBI’s Routemapper charts new territory with Highways England
    September 14, 2016
    Mapping the asset High-speed data collection just got faster for England’s newly created strategic roads operator Highways England’s establishment as a publicly held company in 2015 created a need for a highly accurate asset inventory. This was potentially very costly and had serious safety implications. As well as its relationships with numerous managing agents and contractors, assets include 35,300km of highway, 12,100km of earthworks, 23,200km of safety fences, 150,000 technology assets and sig
  • Smombies! Look out!
    February 12, 2021
    Our city streets are being invaded by smartphone zombies, but help is on the way
  • A roundabouts way of lighting
    October 10, 2022
    One of Europe’s first smart lighting systems specifically for roudabouts is operating in Hungary and making big energy savings for local government, explains Miklós Muranyi*
  • Key deals show strength of Tolling solutions sector
    September 26, 2013
    The world’s leading tolling solution providers have achieved significant deals in recent months emphasising the importance of their latest and proven technology. Guy Woodford reports Kapsch TrafficCom North America (Kapsch), part of Kapsch TrafficCom Group, has been awarded a five-year US$30 million contract by Canadian Tolling Company International (Cantoll). The contract will see the leading tolling technology manufacturer supply its next generation TDMA V6 Interior Transponder, also known as an onboar