Trends are changing, also in Road Construction and Earthmoving. Some trends will be obsolete in no time. Some will become Best Practice, and others will evolve and mature over time.

Do you keep up with these trends? Stay up-to-date with our summary.

#1: Material Mixes and New Technologies

Most material mixes are not that new. Warm-mix asphalt, Noise-reducing asphalt, Green asphalt, and Perpetual pavement are common mixes. Newer trends are often focused on energy-efficient technologies. Solar roads being one. Solar roads might not be common Best Practice yet but already finding their way for applications. What are solar roads? They are built out of solar cells, expecting a longer lifetime of its panels than traditional asphalt roads. Cost, durability and overall feasibility have not been figured out for main stream products. However, there are definitely small applications like the bike path in the Netherlands that is worthwhile to mention, as a beginning success story for solar roads.

Photo Credit: Velowow

Another interesting technology is tile rubber paving material that collects energy from traffic. How does it work? Road sections are set up with bumps for e.g. toll areas, roundabouts and shopping areas. The bumps slow cars down, generating energy at the same time. Watch this video for more details. A trend that is also not a main-stream application yet, but definitely worthwhile to watch.

#2: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are already used in different parts of the world for aerial mapping, surveying and inspection work for roads and bridges. They are especially helpful for large areas, where they are considered to be huge time savers compared to traditional surveying work. Also, they provide significant advantages in places that are not easy to reach, like under bridges and areas that are dangerous to get to. Komatsu recently announced a new application for the usage of UAVs, with their plans to use unmanned aircrafts to solve construction worker shortage in Japan.

Regulations are still in progress in many countries, where special permissions are needed, or where it is currently not allowed to use UAVs, in order to keep the airspace safe. The usage of upcoming and new application possibilities are therefore, still in its early stages. One of the future applications will build structures for construction sites, using UAVs. This video shows vision how such an application could look like one day.

Definitely a promising technology that comes with challenges needing to be solved, prior to widespread application usage. Looking for more details? Find more information at Equipment World and at Fieldlens.

#3: Compaction/Intelligent Compaction

Compaction systems come in form of Pass Counting Systems and Intelligent Compaction Systems (IC). What is the difference and what works best?

Pass Counting Systems determine the number of required passes and show the operator the number of passes rolled in each lane. Temperature sensors monitor the temperature of the top layer for optimum compaction. Intelligent Compaction Systems include accelerometer sensors, measuring stiffness values. These stiffness values are used to make conclusions about the density of the mat. Intelligent Compaction systems offer higher accuracy by using RTK as the GPS solution, in comparison to a basic pass counting system. It’s quite technical and might not be easy to understand first-hand. The attached video explains how an Intelligent Compaction System works.

Volvo just introduced its newest Intelligent Compaction System at World of Asphalt in Baltimore this week. The system claims to measures density versus stiffness. For more details see the article by Better Roads and video explaining this new approach.

Intelligent compaction is not new, but gains more traction today than ever before. It is considered to be an accelerating innovation in construction by producing better quality pavements with adequate and consistent rolling patterns. Federal road authorities and several states, especially in the US, are pushing for wider implementation of IC systems. For more details please refer also to the Quick Facts Guide about Intelligent Compaction and the White Paper ‘Towards Intelligent Compaction’.

#4: Paving Quality

Grade-Control by itself is not solely the solution to higher Paving Quality anymore. Today, Compaction and Measuring/Monitoring Asphalt Temperatures are considered to be main drivers for Paving Quality. Road agencies have researched these topics for many years for valid reasons. Road maintenance is expensive and authorities’ goal is to increase the life-span of a road. A trend to watch? May actually become more like a trend to get on board with.

Paving Quality and Asphalt Temperature

Knowing your paving temperature in real-time improves paving quality. Why? Because you can adjust on the spot before the asphalt is laid down. Monitoring asphalt temperatures early on, starting at the asphalt plant, gets you the best results. Otherwise, long hauling periods, traffic and cold weather may cool down the asphalt, way before you make it to the construction site.

How do you get the best results?

By using multi-layer insulations and measuring material temperature with sensors during transport.

Asphalt temperature taken from the inside of an asphalt truck

By monitoring the temperature of asphalt in the Hopper using infrared sensor(s).

Infrared sensor and temperature displayed on a controller/HMI

By measuring asphalt temperatures during paving with an infrared scanner.

Pave-IR on the jobsie

Scanner & Wireless Data Transmission

Monitoring asphalt temperatures is a trend you want to get familiar with.

#5: 3D Paving

3D Paving is a topic where opinions divide quite frequently. According to a poll in the MOBA Community a while back, 72% responded that 3D paving would have a great future for general road construction. That is, however, quite contrary to the facts that the majority of 3D paving jobs is still done at airports, not regularly for general road construction. This hasn’t changed much.

Challenges mentioned include the complexity of the design, surveyor work, and the influences of additional factors that have an impact on the quality of a road. For example, paving speed and quality of material. These factors cannot be controlled by a 3D system. Common agreement seems to be that 3D applications are best used for the base work, and maybe for the first 2 to 3 asphalt layers. Using an averaging beam with sonic sensors, preferably with multi-sonic sensors, still does best on the final layer. Hybrid systems and combinations are definitely a trend to watch closely, getting familiar with for jobs that not only need highest possible accuracy.

#6: Telematics

Telematics is a growing market, with its revenue forecasted to reach to $20 billion overall by 2018. Telematics in the construction industry comes in form of machine tracking and diagnostic tools, training, project management, data sync with office and cloud-based collaboration, but on a small revenue scale. One of the main obstacles in the past was the inability to manage mixed fleets over one screen. Finally, the problem has been solved with the new AEM/AEMP standard.One would think that the new standard would increase usage of telematics significantly. An AEM survey showed, however a different picture. While construction firms plan to grow staff and fleet size, most have no plans to use telematics.

In all fairness, the AEM/AEMP standard is new and the acceptance of telematics solutions may increase quite faster than anticipated in this survey. Success will depend on ease of use, efficiency increase and cost savings. As pointed out in this blog post, Telematics Standard: An introduction, “the 19 data points selected for the first round of the new AEM/AEMP standard offer a solid basket of data and information. That should be a good incentive for users”.A trend to watch and get more information on from peers who are already on board with telematics.

#7: Google Glass and Construction

Google Glass, one of Time’s 2012’s best innovations, is said to be “dead…for now”. Google is rethinking its plans for the device, and re-driving its purpose. Read how Google Glass has been saved.

Source: Wikimedia

Also, Construction’s first ‘smart helmet’ is to be hatched from Google Glass pilot. Watch the video to get more details.

Innovations, like Google Glass and the 4D smart helmet by DAQRI, are trends that can provide potential for cost savings and productivity increase. Features like pictures through voice command and virtual walking while managing construction sites hands free, are advanced features.

Are you ready for another go at Google Glass and upcoming, alike trends?

What trends do you seriously consider, and why?