Comprehensive evaluation of automated pavement condition survey service providers' technical competence

Abstract

High-quality pavement condition data are fundamental to pavement management, but the collection of these data is costly and time-consuming with steadily increasing complexity in equipment and procedures. Evaluating the technical competence of an automated pavement condition survey service provider presents unique challenges to highway agencies, because the technologies are rapidly advancing and the technical details are often outside the skill set of pavement engineers and managers. This study presents recent technological and procedural innovations in evaluating multiple bids for a statewide survey of California. These include evaluation on an item-by-item basis instead of comparing a derived composite index, combining several independent measurements of the same item to improve the quality of ground truth results and the synchronisation of profiles and pavement images to strengthen the credibility of assessment.