NTRO’s Intelligent Pavement Assessment Vehicle (iPAVE) recently visited Melbourne Airport’s main runway (Runway 16-34) as we trial the use of the iPAVE on heavy duty airport pavements.
Our iPAVEs have already been used on regional airport runways for data collection and are now being trialled on heavy duty pavements at major airports with the goal of helping airport managers better understand and manage their critical pavement assets.
Consistent with leading international experiences, NTRO is now undertaking research to enhance understanding of how the iPAVE can be used to collect data on the thicker, flexible and rigid concrete pavements at larger airports.
The use of the iPAVE can ‘change the game’ for airports, with far quicker and more efficient data collection, with less downtime / pavement area closures being required.
The data from this trial has been collected, and is now being reviewed to see how this emerging technology can assist larger airports with high capacity airport operations. Our thanks to Melbourne Airport for allowing us access, and to collect data, vision and footage to assist our important research in partnership with industry.
