Innovation in Technologies to Support the Storage, Retrieval, and Utilization of 3-D Utility Location Data in Highway Renewal
Solicitation Number: SHRP2_R01-A
Agency: The National Academies
Office: Transportation Research Board
Location: Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2)

The U.S. highway system is aging and must be rebuilt while we are driving on it and living next to it. Research in the SHRP 2 Renewal focus area therefore addresses the need to develop a consistent, systematic approach to completing highway projects quickly, with minimal disruption to the community, and producing facilities that are long-lasting. Identifying new technologies for locating underground utilities; developing procedures to speed the evaluation of designs and the inspection of construction; and applying new methods and materials for preserving, rehabilitating, and reconstructing roadways and bridges are among the goals for this focus area. Alternative strategies for contracting, financing, and managing projects and mitigating institutional barriers also are part of the emphasis on rapid renewal. The renewal scope applies to all classes of roads.

This project is intended to identify best practices for modeling, structuring, storing, retrieving, visualizing, and integrating 3-D utility data and to develop an innovative approach that leverages recent advances in technologies including, but not limited to, global positioning systems (GPS), ground penetrating radar, and geographical information systems (GIS). These practices would improve the quality and efficiency of storing, retrieving, and utilizing utility records include active and passive detection equipment, with three-dimensional positional and structural information. The project is also intended to demonstrate the collection, management, and use of such information in a multi-utility environment. The overall objective is to reduce the time spent on repeatedly "refinding" known utilities so that resources can be focused on unknown or previously mis-recorded utilities and so that an increasingly comprehensive record of utility information beneath public rights-of-way can be created.

Proposals (20 single-bound copies) are due not later than 4:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on April 21, 2009

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