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

  • What lies beneath Down Under
    January 11, 2021
    The third and final construction stage on Sydney’s WestConnex project has begun, including the underground Rozelle Interchange – with a lot of help from Komatsu
  • Increased mobility for Mexico
    June 14, 2012
    Urban mobility is high on the infrastructure agenda in Mexico. Business News Americas spoke with Salvador Herrera, executive director of the Centre for Sustainable Transport (CTS), about the elements of a sustainable transport system and Mexico City's addiction to the car At the heart of Mexico City's transport policy is a contradiction that is typical of the country as a whole. The government is spending big on Line 12 of the metro system and has introduced the first Metrobús bus rapid transit (BRT) l
  • IRF’s Marrakech regional event focuses on North Africa
    April 12, 2013
    A series of dynamic meetings in Marrakech signal the forward direction of IRF Geneva as it gears up for a bright new era as a global voice of the road sector. As these pages go to press, IRF Geneva is just emerging from a very rewarding regional conference focusing on North Africa and the Mediterranean that took place from 19-20 March, 2013. The success of this high-level gathering, organised in association with the Moroccan Road Association and Moroccan Motorways (Autoroutes du Maroc), reflects IRF Geneva’
  • Extended Traffic Control in 2014 and beyond
    April 3, 2014
    One leading traffic control solution company has announced a major acquisition to broaden its customer offer, while the delivery of an ambitious real-time journey information service for Scotland’s motorists is well on track. Guy Woodford reports Kapsch’s TrafficCom says its high-profile recent US$16 million acquisition of Transdyn will enable it to offer current and future customers worldwide an extended end-to-end product and solution portfolio for intelligent transport systems (ITS). The acquisitio