Highway Asset Management Assisted by Mobile Mapping Technology – M6

Client
> Confidential

Sector/Market
> Infrastructure

Services
> LIDAR Mobile Mapping, Geo Drive, Ground Investigation

Location
> M6

Project summary

This case study outlines the use of mobile mapping technology for highway asset management along a 20-kilometre section of the M6 motorway. The project focused on collecting high-quality, accurate position data for highway features essential to driver safety and the implementation of an Intelligent Transport System (ITS). With an emphasis on road signage, the survey captured an extensive data set, valuable for managing motorway infrastructure. The data collected also offers a comprehensive overview of the entire motorway environment, helping support infrastructure planning, management, and maintenance.

The challenges

Volume of Assets: The M6 motorway has a large number of signs and other features that are challenging to catalogue accurately through traditional ground survey methods.
Safety Concerns: Conducting ground-based surveys on a busy motorway can be hazardous for survey teams and disrupt normal traffic flow.
Data Completeness and Perspective: Capturing the comprehensive details and accurate positioning of signs and motorway features from a typical road-user perspective is essential for ITS applications but challenging with conventional techniques.

Our team

Technology Employed

Geo Drive: The survey employed Geo Drive mobile mapping technology, offered by Murphy Geospatial. Geo Drive collects data while moving at traffic speed, thus avoiding the need for road closures or other disruptions. This approach is particularly advantageous for highways, where typical ground-based survey methods may be limited or require extensive safety measures.

Key Technologies:

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging): Captures high-resolution, 3D point cloud data.
Panoramic Imaging: Provides a road-user perspective of the entire survey environment, allowing for detailed visual reference of signs and surrounding infrastructure.
Trimble Business Center (TBC): Used for processing, analysing, and georeferencing the collected data. TBC allows for convenient feature extraction from point clouds and attribute collection, including image capturing.

Our work

Data Collection:

The Geo Drive system collected LiDAR data and panoramic imagery along a 20 km section of the M6 motorway.
The data was collected at traffic speed, ensuring minimal disruption to normal motorway operations.
Data from Geo Drive captures the motorway environment from the driver’s perspective, providing a natural context for feature analysis and future ITS applications.

Processing:

The collected data was accurately georeferenced, ensuring that every feature’s location is precisely mapped for ITS application.
Trimble Business Center (TBC) was utilized to process the raw data, allowing efficient extraction of feature coordinates from the LiDAR point cloud and collection of associated attributes.
Automatic point cloud classification facilitated the extraction of road signs.
Images were linked to each asset, providing a visual reference at the time of data collection. This enhances future GIS (Geographic Information System) integrations by enabling realistic and context-sensitive visualisations.

Data Transformation for GIS:

The processed data was exported to a spreadsheet, facilitating easy integration with GIS platforms.
The data was imported into QGIS, enabling detailed visualizations and the ability to overlay other GIS layers for comprehensive spatial analysis and ITS integration.

Results

The result of the project produced a high-quality geodatabase and a detailed visualisation of the M6 motorway in QGIS. The geodatabase contained accurately georeferenced positions of road signs, complete with photographic documentation. This asset-rich data set, accessible within the GIS environment, provides a valuable resource for transportation management:

Enhanced Accuracy: The precise positioning of features supports ITS by allowing for efficient, data-driven decision-making.
Improved Efficiency: The ability to gather comprehensive data at traffic speed made the survey quick and non-disruptive, ensuring both safety and minimal impact on traffic.
Comprehensive Insights: The LiDAR and panoramic imaging from Geo Drive offered an in-depth view of the motorway environment, not limited to road signs but including other features valuable for infrastructure management.

This mobile mapping approach exemplifies a robust, efficient, and safe methodology for managing highway assets, providing a replicable model for similar projects focused on data-driven transportation management and ITS integration.

Contact

For more information on this project, please email info@murphygs.ie or call us on +353 (0)45 484 040