FWA wants to gather and standardize pavement data

The Federal Highway Administration wants to hear from companies able to create a standardized format for data on pavement conditions.

Most highway agencies have pavement management systems. The data often includes inventory, condition and distress data collected at regular intervals. FWA officials have found agencies gather data and process it in a variety of ways, such as in-house collection or through a contractor’s own system. Highway agencies also use different technologies for collecting and storing that data.

As a result, FWA has little to no national-level data format standardization of condition and distress attributes, such as cracking, rutting, and patching.

FWA wants feedback from companies as it establishes data formats for highway agencies and equipment suppliers. The data standardization will include metadata, such as vendor information, route, and global position system locations, equipment parameters, and calibration information.

FWA expects the metadata standard will be developed so it allows for adjusting to future enhancements. Officials are considering developing data viewer software similar in concept to the ProVal software.

FWA released its sources sought notice Oct. 31. Responses are due by Dec. 1.