In planning for its future, the City of Robbinsdale needed to study its streets and make responsible decisions about their reconstruction.

The City hoped to gather the necessary data to provide its citizens with the best pavement system at the lowest possible cost. Braun Intertec was hired by the City of Robbinsdale to gather that data through a structural evaluation of 52 miles of streets.

Challenges

We were challenged with the complex task of combining custom-built, nondestructive pavement testing equipment and computer software, with sound engineering and economic analysis, to create an objective decision making framework for pavement management.

Solutions

We began by identifying the streets’ pavement profile, thickness and structural capacity. Engineers creatively integrated three major technologies developed worldwide to obtain a comprehensive evaluation of pavement conditions and strength:

• Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
• Global Positioning System (GPS)
• Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD)

To augment and help the project’s success, we used other technologies, including high-speed, automated surveillance. The data-capture technology provided longitudinal and transverse profile measurements that provided a detailed picture of subsurface integrity.

By integrating the technologies, our engineers demonstrated complexity in principles and practice, involving civil and mechanical engineering, and electronic and computer science. These practices required multiple disciplines such as pavement engineering, electromagnetic science, mechanical engineering, mapping technologies and pavement management. In addition, the information is compatible with a Geographic Information System (GIS) system, which if integrated, would further enhance the information’s value to a client’s staff and its decision makers.

With this project, we helped the City of Robbinsdale optimize its investment in street rehabilitation. The company creatively improved the accuracy of the pavement structural evaluation, which will be reflected in the city’s strategic development of its street maintenance and rehabilitation program. The engineers improved the productivity in the field operation of non-destructive testing. These accomplishments helped meet the client’s objectives, particularly in inventory, benchmarking and data collection, for the City’s future pavement management system.