Webinar on the state of weigh-in-motion in the USA

Yesterday, a webinar organized by CVSA, FHWA and ISWIM took place, where a wide range of experts in weigh-in-motion presented their views on the state of WIM in the USA, especially when it comes to the use of WIM systems for law enforcement purposes.

We got a very interesting insight into the first direct enforcement WIM site in the USA. Located on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) in New York City, the site went operational three weeks ago after extensive testing and legal challenges, which were presented in detail by Tanvi Pandya and Dawn Harrison from the NYCDOT. BQE is one of the most important roads in NYC and is especially known for its triple-cantilevered section, which is vulnerable to overloaded vehicles. This critical section was one of the main reasons why a direct enforcement site was installed, while additional structural health monitoring sensors were also placed on the concrete cantilevers to monitor the behavior of the structure under the loads.

Kendall Jackson, First Sergeant at the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, presented a practitioner’s view on the use of WIM in law enforcement. North Carolina uses a number of road WIM sites for pre-screening as well as portable low-speed WIM systems and static scales. First Sergeant Jackson highlighted the importance of quality suspensions in heavy vehicles, showing an example where a malfunctioning suspension caused a significant shift of load from one axle to another.

Connecting hundreds of WIM sites into a single system is a monumental task from a technical and logistical perspective, but it does give the owner of the road network an enormous data set useful in infrastructure management and traffic studies. The WIM data network in the US was presented by Steven Jessberger from FHWA.

We are looking forward to such events in the future, as it is always interesting to hear about the experiences of actual WIM users.