8 May 2024:

Applying the ‘many hands make light work’ principle, Wellington Transport Alliance (WTA) is beginning to install electronic road surface monitoring cameras on vehicles other than specialist surveillance vehicles.

WTA is an alliance of Waka Kotahi, Fulton Hogan and WSP, and maintains the state highways and roading networks of the Greater Wellington region.

A camera has been added to a WTA traffic response vehicle to monitor road surface quality as it travels the network. It is recording valuable data on the Capital’s roads – including where potholes are beginning to occur – for more timely road maintenance decisions.

Adding this technology to this vehicle – and potentially other vehicles that daily ply the city’s roads — reduces the need for specialised surveillance vehicles, carbon emissions, traffic congestion and cost.

Fulton Hogan’s National Innovation Lead, Beaudene Pumipi, says it could be an opportunity, for example, for courier and transport companies to play a part in road maintenance.

“It could involve a wider community in monitoring road surfaces, providing valuable data to aid decision-making on timing and type of road maintenance activity,” Beaudene says.

Pictured is Fulton Hogan Engineering Solutions’ Willy Silcock and the incident response vehicle which now also monitors road quality.