The National Transport Research Organisation was privileged to have two of its leaders attend and take part in the 2023 Road Profile Users’ Group (RPUG) meeting in the United States.
NTRO infrastructure measurement discipline lead Richard Wix, and data and technology futures leader Russell Gallagher travelled to this year’s meeting in O’Fallon, Illinois.
With the theme The Gateway to Knowledge about Surface Characteristics – playing on the venue’s close proximity to the St Louis Gateway Arch – this year’s conference was hosted by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT).
Richard was one of the conference speakers and gave a presentation entitled “Quality and quantity – can they co-exist?” dealing with the fact that both base line and real time data can play a role in managing the road network.
The purpose of the RPUG is to serve as a forum for the exchange of information between end users, data collectors, vendors, construction and design engineers and researchers who have an interest in road profiles, road roughness/smoothness, pavement surface textures, friction, and tyre-pavement noise.
Nearly 250 attended the conference.
Richard and Russell’s trip also included a visit to IDOT’s new Certification and Research Track (ICART) which was designed and constructed to provide a closed facility to support pavement surface properties research, evaluate non-destructive testing (NDT) equipment and materials for highway construction, and to certify equipment according to established standards.
NTRO infrastructure measurement discipline lead Richard Wix (right) presents at the 2023 RPUG Conference in the United States.