The National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University has partnered with Pavia Systems for the use of HeadLight, a project inspection tool, to be used in their latest cycle of Pavement Test Track research.

Focused on providing practical research to meet the needs of maintaining America’s highway infrastructure, NCAT’s Pavement Test Track is an unmatched, accelerated pavement-testing facility that brings together real-world pavement construction with live, heavy trafficking for rapid testing and analysis of asphalt pavements. The track’s 46 test sections are sponsored on three-year cycles funded and managed as a cooperative project among highway agencies and industry sponsors. Each sponsor has specific research objectives for their section(s) as well as shared objectives for the track as a whole.

Participating state transportation agencies in the 2015-2018 test cycle include: Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, as well as the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). To promote connectivity among NCAT staff and sponsors, NCAT will utilize HeadLight, Pavia’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) inspection platform to observe, document and share construction data in real-time.

‘This is the fifteenth year of accelerated pavement testing and the sixth Pavement Test Track cycle,’ said Dr. R. Buzz Powell, NCAT Assistant Director and Test Track Manager. ‘With our largest group of sponsors ever, we were looking for better ways to give them a window into the construction process.’

HeadLight is a software system built with real-time, direct input from project inspectors on the job, designed exclusively for road-owning government agencies to gain easier, more effective and less-costly ways for their teams to perform project inspections in the field.

‘We are very excited to partner with NCAT as they continue to work to advance pavement technologies,’ said George White, chief executive officer and co-founder of Pavia Systems. ‘The work that comes out of the test track helps the industry continue to understand and improve pavements and we are proud to be able to support that mission by providing access to HeadLight during the construction of the new track sections.’