Road inventory

Zesmill considers a road inventory survey as a multi-purpose mapping and studying of roads and highways to obtain information including:

• road and driveway centerlines
• road parameters and current geometry, alignment, super-elevation, and grades
• junctions, parking spaces, terminals, safety barriers etc.
• bridges, overpasses , culverts, dams etc.
• traffic controls: road marking, signals, signs
• pavement structure
• sidewalks, adjacent land use
• non-traffic activities which may encroach upon road service.

To carry out road inventory projects, our company uses various approaches and techniques including remote sensing, ground-based imaging and photogrammetry, GPS/GNSS, and terrestrial laser scanning. Travelling by Zesmill’s survey vehicle equipped with 360° camera, GPS and IMU, our field team collects the principal information about arterial and minor roads. Direct georeferencing of obtained images is accomplished by GNSS/GPS systems and inertial navigation. GPS- and IMU-based video-logging also offers a fast and low-cost approach to road inventory. Video-logging have been widely using by transportation departments in U.S. states since 1990’s. But measurements of road geometry and adjacent constructions using video images are limited.  

Parking lot survey

Parking lot survey may include parking inventory survey and/or parking volume and load monitoring, Automobile parking spaces can be classified into: on-street or off-street; public (i.e. available to the public) or private; formal (i.e. marked and controlled spaces) or informal. Where it is permitted, Zesmill uses UAVs (drones) for multiple parking monitoring, during weekdays and weekends. While parking inventory survey is based on ground survey and mapping as well as conventional aerial imaging.

Traffic signs inventory

Road inventory also helps to create and maintain highway and street traffic signs data bases. Data collection involves geolocation of signs and roadway markers (destination distance signs), the mapping of feature locations (e.g. signs erected at the side of, or above roads, and at what height) along with recording of specific attribute information. Our field engineers use survey vehicle equipped with panoramic camera, GPS and IMU, to acquire photos and precise geographic coordinates of each sign or several signs on one supporter (post).  Each road sign and marker has precise location on the digital road maps and recorded to geodatabase.

Road inventory in developing countries and remote areas

Zesmill has also performed two important projects when required to perform road inventory for a limited time: in the Danube delta (2010) and Yemen (2012, under UN agenda). In both cases we used remote sensing methods and extensive field work using 4x4 survey vehicles as well as stationary GPS stations and data storages located in field camps.

Road inventory projects in developing countries and remote areas are focused on:

• supply routes, connection routes, warehouses
• arterial and minor roads
• road conditions
• bridge inventory and conditions
• obstacles like flooding zones, debris flows, ruined bridges
• >mountain passes and gaps
• ferry crossings and quays.