ZEB 2019: Federal Highway Research Institute increases number of reviews of suface damages

The Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) increased the number of reviews of recorded suface damages as of the 2019 condition survey and assessment (ZEB) of the federal highways. From now on, 5% of the surveyed road sections are to be checked again for surface damage as part of the condition assessment and compared with the results of the surveyor. These samples are intended to quantify the analysis of the collected data. The Free State of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia adopted this innovation for this year's ZEB of their state roads.

Evaluation of surface damage in OnKo3
Evaluation of surface damage in OnKo3

This considerably increases the workload for the companies carrying out the condition assessment. Nevertheless, the innovation has been welcomed. "Although the extent of the reviews has increased by about 20% for us, I think this extension makes sense because it improves traceability. Thanks to our trained personnel and OnKo3, the additional work is no problem for us," says Markus Ruess, project manager for ZEB projects at HELLER Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH. HELLER uses the online visualization system OnKo3 to compare the captured front and surface images with the recorded suface damages of the surveyor. Any deviations are made accessible to both the surveyor and the customer via a link to the system. "With OnKo3, all our evaluations are documented and transparent for each stakeholder," says Ruess.