Challenge

In 1998 New Zealand decided to implement a national pavement management system. The new system was to be used by all local authorities (cities and districts) including the intercity state highway network, consultants and contractors. This included over 80 different agencies who were responsible for a network of approximately 100,000 km of sealed and unsealed roads.

The system needed to be an open system that allowed the users to alter the models or the framework without relying on the original software vendor. The new pavement management system needed to accommodate all types of roads, including chip seals, asphalt pavements and unsealed roads. The system also had to be implemented and pilot tested in only seven months.

Solution

The RIMS Group recommended that New Zealand acquire Deighton's dTIMS software. Using a national site license, New Zealand easily integrated dTIMS with their existing system.

The evolutionary nature of road management in New Zealand and the likelihood of future changes meant that it was important to adopt as flexible a system as possible. The project sponsors did not want to tie themselves to a single supplier who would be required to make all future modifications to the system on their behalf.

Results

The unique flexibility of the dTIMS software allowed each agency to define their own models, based on their needs and objectives, and then analyze their models using dTIMS's heuristic optimization and excellent output functions.

The New Zealand dTIMS Project was awarded the Supreme Award for engineering excellence for information technology from the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ).