Consulting Service for Development of Intelligent Road Safety & Network Management System for Road network
The road network in Ukraine faced significant challenges due to overloaded trucks, impacting the longevity and maintenance costs of the infrastructure. The State Budget of Ukraine reported an annual cost of over 10 billion UAH attributed to overloaded vehicles, underscoring the urgent need for an effective enforcement system. Addressing this, Sweroad provided technical assistance to the State Road Agency of Ukraine under the “Road Sector Development Project” to implement an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) for road safety and network management.
Challenge
Overloaded trucks have been one of the biggest issues affecting the lifetime and maintenance cost of Ukraine and effective enforcement of overweight has been one of the priorities in road transport. According to State Budget of Ukraine annual cost of overloaded vehicles on the road maintenance was more than 10 billion UAH. Due to the wide road network of Ukraine, it was necessary to implement an effective and efficient enforcement system.
Solution
In order to facilitate ITS deployment in Ukraine, Sweroad has provided a Technical Assistance to the State Road Agency of Ukraine within the context of the “Road Sector Development Project”. Within the Technical Assistance, Sweroad assessed Weigh-in-Motion (WIM), Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) and Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) systems’ deployment as well as integration of these systems in terms of technical, legal, institutional and social contexts. As a result, Sweroad provided conceptual design, architecture and technical requirements for these ITS applications and prepared the draft legislation for direct enforcement of overloaded trucks by using High Speed WIMs. Moreover Sweroad prepared the bidding documentations for the deployment of a pilot system comprised of 10 WIM Stations on the arterial roads around Kyiv and a Back Office, and supported the State Road Agency of Ukraine for the procurement of the system.
Outcomes
Deployment of the High Speed WIM stations started in 2019 and completed in 2020, in accordance with the technical requirements prepared by Sweroad. Sweroad technical requirements aimed accuracy of axle weigh measurements better than 95%, meeting A(5) Class requirement of COST 323 accuracy classes. To meet that accuracy level, our design of the WIM system included three rows of weighing sensors for each lane. Moreover, on each lane there were 2 inductive loops, 1 temperature sensor and 1 footprint sensor installed.
The pilot system showed that up to 50% of the trucks were overloaded, leading not only to the deterioration of the pavement but also posing a significant threat to road safety. After the success of the pilot system, to the State Road Agency of Ukraine has deployed additional 75 WIM Stations with direct enforcement. After the implementation, percentage of overweight vehicles has decreased from 25% in 2019 to 10% in July 2021, and to 3% in October 2021. But still, between 1 October 2021 and 27 December 2021, there has been 3838 violation tickets issued by the system with total value of 78 633 500 UAH. By estimating the reduced axle loads on the pavement, it is calculated that the lifetime will be increased by 4 years, which causes a big saving on the maintenance costs.
As a result, Sweroad’s assistance to the State Road Agency of Ukraine significantly reduced road maintenance costs and enhanced road safety by lowering the percentage of overweight vehicles.
