Every single year technology continues to expand in ways that many thought were unpredictable a short period of time ago. Technology continues to grow and has managed to work its way into so many industries across the United States, to help improve the productivity. This includes transportation planning firms, the top engineering consulting companies, and even geotechnical design firms.
One of the industries that technology has helped improve and change is that of the pavement industry. Technology has helped innovate the concept of ground-penetrating-radar equipment or GPR pavement equipment. Many people in the industry that are experts believe that GPR pavement equipment is the future of pavement equipment, here is why.
The process in which two more or more two dimensional, 2D, images are translated into three dimensional, 3D, measurements of models is referred to as photogrammetry and it is often used in a lot of different applications. It will usually involve analyzing and comparing 2D photographs.
Dwight D. Eisenhower truly believed in himself when he passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, after being inspired by the network of high-speed roads he saw while in Germany during World War II. The law helped to fund the first 41,000 miles of pavement that created the early United States interstate system which now features 46,876 miles that run throughout all 50 states.
This was all done before the invention of GPR pavement equipment, so imagine how much easier this is now that we have the right technology to get the job done in an efficient and quick manner. In the United States, more than 25% of all bridges either need significant repairs or are handling more traffic than they were designed to carry. This is why it is important for the pavement industry to create new innovations such as GPR pavement equipment.
Just over 4,000 United States dams were considered to be unsafe when analyzed by the American Society of Civil Engineers. More than a third of all failures from damns, or near-failures, since 1874 have happened just recently in the past decade. It is essential to use new creations like GPR pavement equipment to help improve the quality of these important infrastructures across the United States.
The EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, estimates that drinking water utilities will require an investment of $335 billion over the next 20 years to help address the infrastructure needs. Other data suggest that up to half of the asset in wastewater facilities may be beyond the midpoint of their use by the year of 2020. By that same year, almost every major container port in the United States is projected to be handling at least double the volume it was originally designed for.
It is important to note these things because inventions such as the GPR pavement equipment will help prevent construction companies from contaminating important sources of water. Just about a third of all highway deaths are believed to be caused by substandard road conditions, roadside hazards, or obsolete road designs. Estimates show that over one-third of all the major roads in the United States are in either poor or mediocre condition. Also, more than half of all the interstate miles are at 70% of traffic capacity.
In Conclusion
The future of the highway road industry and even the major road industry lies within the continued development of GPR pavement equipment and other construction innovations. The construction industry will continue to work on implementing high-grade forms of technology into their products. Not only will it allow them to work more efficiently, but it will also allow them to do more work at once. AS mentioned earlier there are a lot of major roads filled with traffic across the United States and as the population grows we will need more space. Learn more about this topic here.
