A GIS-based system for tracking pavement compaction

Compaction is an important operation for improving construction material stability in construction operations such as soils and asphalt pavement. Through the process of compaction, soil strength and stability can be increased to the magnitude required by the design. Quality control is an extremely important concern of State Highway Agencies and contractors. For asphalt pavements, performance and quality are affected by three primary factors: a properly designed mix, drainage, and adequate compaction. These three factors must be performed together to assure quality. For this reason, compaction is considered to be very important in the performance of asphalt pavements. This paper reports on research to develop a system to map the moving compaction equipment, transform this result into a geometrical representation, and to investigate the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to develop a graphical representation depicting the number of coverages. Results are stored in a permanent record that can serve as a historical document.