UTILIZING AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION TRACKING SYSTEMS TO COMPILE OPERATIONAL FIELD AND STRUCTURE DATA

Abstract

The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) and its Office of Materials Technology (OMT) is responsible for ensuring the materials used on its roadway system are properly designed, produced, and built to the approved standards. Each technology subdivision is responsible for the quality assurance of the materials used in transportation facility construction. The management of these materials relies on a series of intensive human processes involving sample collection and delivery. As the materials travel throughout the OMT, associated material information is manually recorded into a localized network database and the Material Management System (MMS) separately. The current large amount of human involvement necessary in the material clearance process can be streamlined with the integration of automatic identification technology (AIT). This study utilizes past implementations of AIT into civil engineering and construction applications to provide the SHA with AIT system hardware recommendations, software development considerations, estimated investment costs, and return on investment.