Digitizing Roads & HIGHWAYS Construction

Data-driven technologies and Big data analytics have brought a profound shift in the construction space, especially building of roads and highways. Agith G Antony takes a peek into the latest developments in the roads & highways sector.

Construction being one of fast growing industries around the world, usage of automation and machine control technologies is growing rapidly. Developed countries are already reaping benefits such as higher productivity, controlled costs, perfect predictability, efficiency, quality, safety etc. from a range of new control technologies and advanced automation. In addition, this helps them keep projects on track and complete them in time with higher quality. Conversely, in India construction is one of the least automated industries. However, now things are changing as mobile equipment manufacturers are offering advanced functionalities such as GPS, data collection, condition monitoring, secure remote maintenance, connectivity options and much more. With this, the barriers for adopting new technologies are falling; however, it would take some time to reach automation levels deployed in the western world.

The construction industry being a cost sensitive industry, the investment in high tech equipment or IT was always in question. However, since last couple of years, big players have started leveraging technologies such as Industrial IoT for real time data monitoring, data analytics, predictive maintenance for enhancing availability, efficiency and boosting margins. In India, Government has laid a foundation with its 'Digital India' mission and various other schemes. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, is encouraging the implementation of a 'Value Engineering Program' to promote the use of new technologies. With these developments, construction equipment market is likely to witness a rise in technology demand and see an influx of increased automation and digitization concepts coupled with enhanced safety.

Major highway project executing agencies have invested and started leveraging the benefits of digital platforms. L&T is a frontrunner to introduce disruptive changes in the fields of engineering and construction, and it is no different in the road segment. Says D K Sen, wholetime director & senior executive vice president (infrastructure), L&T, “We have developed in-house platforms and portals for all primary functions in road construction life cycle. Apart from geospatial based surveys, we have platforms like LMNOP (Locate Measure Navigate On Phone) to capture feature information digitally. Today, all new projects we bid for use these technologies. It provides faster and more accurate data for designing.”

Sen adds, “During execution, we use IoT-based technologies. All assets operational at project sites are connected and the data is evaluated and worked upon daily that has helped us improve our overall productivity of the equipment. 100% of our weighment happens on an integrated digital platform sharing real time information and easy reconciliation. All projects report daily progress through an integrated DPR application. Additionally, the use of 3D machine controls for equipment like motor graders, excavators and pavers coupled with rovers for survey staking and marking have helped us improve productivity by 2x and with better quality.”

Trimble, a major digital solution provider for the construction industry has brought in many advanced digital / sensor based solutions from the first construction laser and machine guidance system that enabled contractors to stop eyeballing grade between stakes, to being able to reference grade from the laser. Trimble was also among the first to develop automatic controls, where the blade automatically drives to the correct elevation. These were great for planar type surfaces, including levelling and sloping. “Trimble was the first to release a 3D Grade Control System for Construction (Trimble SiteVision Dozer, 1999), and followed on the ability to automatically control the blade to these 3D design surfaces. This was revolutionary, and over time became expected as contractors saw significant productivity gains and reduction of costs. Today, nearly 100% of all 3D dozer grade control systems sold have blade automatics,” says Roshan Purohit, regional sales manager, saarc, trimble.

Trimble was also the first aftermarket provider to automatically control the boom and bucket of an excavator, and here, too, we see examples of excavators doing side slope work on road jobs where they no longer need a dozer or a grader to fine grade the surface after the excavator has cut the slope. This enables contractors to do more with the equipment they have.

With its innovative, high-performance and cost-efficient products and technologies for cold milling, soil stabilization, hot and cold recycling, concrete paving and surface mining, Wirtgen  leads the world market in road and mineral technologies. For example, the WITOS Paving Plus introduced by Wirtgen is a GPS based digital platform which links all parties involved in the project in a network. According to Palagiri Ramesh, managing director & ceo, wirtgen india, the WITOS Paving Plus collects real time data from various sensor installed on the plant and machinery. Before construction work begins, for instance, the site manager prepares the project using the Control Module. The mixing plant supervisor uses the Materials Module. The trucks automatically transmit their precise position including estimated arrival time to the system via the Transport Module. The paving supervisor and/or the paver operator operate the JobSite Module locally on the job site. Once the project is complete, the site manager has all the data available for evaluation in the Analysis and Documentation Module.

“With WITOS HCQ, HAMM has taken another leap forward, towards the digital construction site. Here, all process data that has been collected is transferred to the WITOS portal via the mobile network. Individual people who have been granted corresponding access rights, such as construction site managers, supervisory authorities or consultants, can then monitor the construction site in real time from any location using the WITOS portal, provided by the Wirtgen Group,” says Ramesh.

The Indian construction equipment industry is significantly embracing the convergence of digital and traditional technologies, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, telematics being a few digital solutions disrupting the space. Certainly, the integration of production techniques with the latest technological developments has the potential to make infrastructure development more efficient.

JCB has pioneered in integrating smart technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data in its 'Intelli' series construction equipment. Through its smart road construction solutions, it is committed to contributing and expediting the building of roads and highways in both, rural and urban India. “All of JCB's machines are equipped with LiveLink, a revolutionary advanced telematics technology unique to JCB that enables remote machine management and monitoring. The technology helps increase productivity, controls cost and ensures asset safety. Through LiveLink we have digitally connected over 1,30,000 JCB machines across the country. JCB has been the first equipment manufacturer to introduce this facility in India,” states Jasmeet Singh, avp, corporate communications, jcb india. JCB has also a state-of-the-art LiveLink Command Centre at Ballabgarh (Delhi-NCR) facility that helps the company stay connected with its customers 24X7.

As far as digitization goes, Tata Hitachi has been a pioneer in introducing the latest technologically advanced equipment in the Indian market. “Tata Hitachi has migrated technology from the EX series to EX Super+ of excavators and Zaxis series to Zaxis GI series of excavators where features like online access to location of equipment, online health monitoring system, etc. have been included apart from several other improvements. In addition to this, ConSite is available in our Zaxis GI series excavators and InSite in EX Super+ series excavators, a next-generation service solution that utilizes Information Communication Technology (ICT),” states Hemant Mathur, Assistant VP, Sales and Marketing, Tata Hitachi.

He adds, “Given the multiple modes of operation on the machines, it can be used for precision work or mass and faster excavation, as the case maybe, with regards to the road construction job site. Customer education programs are conducted to help them infer the data and take necessary initiatives to improve site efficiency and thereby profitability. All these features lead to higher productivity and efficiency of usage of machines leading to faster construction of roads.”

CASE as an active player in the industry tries its best to deploy its best in class offerings when it comes to road and highway construction. “Our machines come loaded with technological features focussed on productivity, fuel efficiency and customer safety and comfort. CASE India's compactor range is packed with features like a compaction meter which provides information on amplitude, frequency and information related to density of soil compacted. The information is available to the operator on the screen. Our graders also include a CRDI electronic engine for on-board diagnostics, with laptop connectivity to download the entire data log and analyse past and ongoing operations. It also goes a long way in identifying the exact issue in case of a service / maintenance alert which ensures quick recovery and lower downtimes,” avers Puneet Vidyarthi, brand leader, case india.

Government Initiatives

To achieve the ambitious target of the $5 trillion economy by 2024 set by the Prime Minister, digitisation will play an essential role. Digital technologies such as 'Internet of Things' and 'Big Data' have ushered in a new era of innovation in the Indian business landscape, today. NHAI & MoRTH have been continuously working on improving internal processes through various digital initiatives to reduce cost and time of road construction. From planning / preparedness to construction and O&M phase, from improving services for passenger and freight transport to road safety, all areas have potential for technology integration.

Many such technologies have been adopted, such as the Project Management Information System, developed by NHAI, which is currently used to monitor road construction projects across geographies in India. Some other digital initiatives introduced by the government authorities for road building and construction include- INAM-Pro (Platform for Infrastructure and Materials Providers), a web based application for infrastructure and materials providers, electronic toll collection through Fastags to reduce congestion at toll plazas, SukhadYatra, an interactive mobile application to empower national highways user with relevant information and Bidder Information Management System (BIMS) to streamline the process of pre-qualification of bidders for EPC / HAM / BOT mode of contracts for all national highway works with enhanced transparency and objectivity.

Challenges

Challenges are multi-fold, the most important being the cultural shift. Construction is one of the least matured industries in terms of technology adoption, though there has been a quantum jump in recent times. People need to first believe that technology is to improve efficiency and not to replace workmen or keep them under surveillance. “On the technology part, we have faced challenges with deploying IoT across different makes, models and year of manufacture. As many machines are unique in the way they function, connecting different OEM IoT data on to a single platform and run analytics were huge challenges. There are instances wherein the up-gradation cost is the same as the cost of new equipment. Another major challenge was of consistency of data. As the IoT system primarily works on GPRS signals, we faced network issues at some locations. Embedding sensors / chips planted in structures that monitor their structural health is something we are currently working on. There are challenges with cost implications and supporting statutory guidelines to deploy it on the scale,” explains Sen.

According to Jasmeet a major challenge is lack of a fully developed technology-compliant industry ecosystem. “While manufacturers like JCB India are trying to continuously innovate and, update and upgrade the technology in the machines, the suppliers, dealers and even customers have not up-to-date to the technological advancements. Hence, to drive faster and greater adoption of IOT / embedded sensor based technology or any other innovation, the entire supply chain needs to be made technologically updated and sound.” He also pointed out the lack of required skill set to operate / work with the advanced machines being manufactured in India. 

Avers Roshan Purohit, one of the biggest challenges arises when various contractors from different phases of the construction process – designers, planners, engineers, surveyors and ground crews are not aligned using the same constructible model. This creates challenges and results in lost time recreating models by the surveyors needed for machine control. For example designers create 3D models, but when it comes time to site works and construction of the road, a lot of the time contractors go back to paper plans. Often, surveyors need to re-create the models again, even though they originated as 3D plans initially. This can also lead to errors, which can lead to more rework and delays in the project.

According to Hemant Mathur, challenges are related to primarily two areas – regulatory and customer acceptance. “Given the plethora of products by different OEMs in this space, it is a challenge to integrate these data systems into a standard system template that can take the utility of data to the next level, like that in construction management system. Further most customers are still in the early stages of using smart phones / digital literacy to leverage next generation data systems and will continue to remain a challenge apart from using on a standalone basis,” points out Hemant.

Scope & Potential

Speaking about the scope and potential of digitizing construction roads, especially national highways Sen had this to say. “There is huge untapped potential to digitalize road construction across the entire life cycle of a project, beginning from a feasibility survey & DPR preparation to post-construction operations and maintenance. Geospatial technologies like LiDAR, GPR & photogrammetry are already proving to be game-changers.” He adds, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) based smart contracting and document management systems can bring in better control and visibility to all stakeholders. It can also help in faster processing of the COS request and dispute resolutions.” Says Roshan Purohit, “over the last few years the Indian government is pursuing a per day road construction target of 40+ km/day. Because of this, we expect to see a lot of green field expressway projects and highway upgrade projects being awarded with tight timelines for completion and within tight budgets. This presents huge opportunities for digitizing road construction projects.”

Ramesh sums it up. With increased demand for better quality of roads, more and more digitalization has to be brought into work for benefits like higher productivity, controlled costs, perfect predictability, efficiency, quality, safety etc. from a range of new control technologies and digitalization. In addition, this help to the keep projects on track and complete them in time with higher quality. The following interactions give more insight into the product offerings and trends.

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