Rewarded an investigation that could revolutionise the measurement of the levels of service in motorways

In this announcement, has resulted winning an investigation on measurement of the levels of service in motorway whose author is Enrique Belda Esplugues, Doctor Engineer of Ways, Channels and Ports. This study supposes an enormous qualitative jump in the gestión of the traffic in the roads of big capacity.

Thanks to the development of the known like ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems), has generalised in the Spanish roads the gestión of the traffic in real time, splitting of the knowledge of variables like the level of service of the road, that is to say, the conditions of operation of the circulation and how the drivers perceive said conditions (speed, time of route, freedom of manoeuvre, comfort, hygiene, etc.).

The purpose of the work is to define a new methodology of calculation in real time of the levels of service in motorways that surpass the current systems of measurement, totally static. The technical proposal by the author of the investigation opens the door to future lines of work headed to study the behaviour of the traffic in motorways under the influence of adverse meteorology and even to establish the possible correlation between the behaviour of the drivers in front of an event and the data obtained of the team of measure that registers said event.

The investigation of Belda Esplugues -a synthesis of his thesis doctoral that, with the same title, was directed by Alfredo García García, chair of the Polytechnical University of Valencia, and Vicente Ramón Tomás López, professor of the Universitat Jaume I- has obtained the unanimous vote of the Jury, gathered the past 11 October in Madrid. The prize has an economic endowment of 12.000 euros.

In this act, also did delivery of the Accésit Björnulf B. Benatov To the work ‘Auscultation of the fisuración downward in asphaltic pavings by means of ultrasounds', of the that are authors Miguel Ángel Franesqui García (School of Industrial and Civil Engineers of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and Juan Galician Medina (Department of Civil Engineering – Transports of the Upper Technical School of Engineers of Ways, Channels and Ports of Polytechnical University of Madrid).

One of the main causes of the deterioration of the asphaltic pavings is the fisuración produced in the surface of the same. In spite of this, treats of an appearance that, according to the authors of the work rewarded with the Accésit, is not considered properly in the traditional methods of design of roads.

With the end to contribute light in this sense, Franesqui and Galician have realised an investigation of laboratory in situ with ultrasounds to know with detail the process of fisuración of the pavings, and like this can evaluate the depth of this type of fissures. Besides, the technical proposal is no destructive, of low cost and of fast execution. Also it allows to resolve some of the problems that present other methods of diagnostic, characterised by his lower reliability or his destructive nature.