Rising concern for America’s infrastructure leads to an increase in construction spend, and a critical need for construction safety technology.
Roads, bridges, and mass transit systems are among the most vital components of America’s infrastructure. At their best, they help facilitate economic growth and prosperity. At their worst, they are a hazard to public safety.
Yet, the 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, created by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), has given the United States a D rating in this category. The already precarious condition of many of our nation's roads, bridges, and transportation infrastructure have been rapidly deteriorating over the last decade, largely due to severe underfunding for maintenance, repair, enhancement, and expansion.
Recently, with growing concern for the nation’s infrastructure—along with the backlog of capital needs—federal funding for roads, bridges, and transportation is on the rise. As the federal government makes commitments in regard to rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure, GPRS is uniquely positioned to assist on all fronts.
According to the ASCE, the growing wear and tear to our nation’s roads has left 43% of our public roadways in poor or mediocre condition, a number that has remained stagnant over the past several years. Our roadways are in dire need of timely repairs and preventative maintenance, and GPRS is at the ready with ground penetrating radar technology that provides critical data for the infrastructure rebuilding process.
With road repair, maintenance, and expansion comes drilling and excavating, and knowing what lies beneath the surface is imperative to safe and efficient operations. Our Video Pipe Inspection department can discover, inspect, and map water and sewer systems by using robotic video pipe cameras, push cameras, and lateral launch cameras. Our VPI services ensure you can receive a comprehensive map of your sewer system including hard to discover elements like lateral lines, so there are no unfortunate surprises after construction begins. The result of VPI provides accurate information that can be used in the planning process for maintenance, repairs, and expansion of our nation’s roads.
In 2018, there was a total of 1.7 million ton-miles per day transported on our nation’s freight rail network. Mission-critical projects for our nation's mass transit infrastructure systems include scheduled maintenance and unscheduled repairs.
When working with railroad, light-rail, or other mass transit systems – GPRS can provide important information regarding the location of underground utilities.
Because a large percentage of our nation’s railroads are privately owned, there will be at least some private utilities on almost any rail infrastructure construction project.The one-call system (811) is responsible for marking all publicly owned utilities but will not typically mark depths and will not mark any privately owned utilities. Therefore, to receive a comprehensive location map, a private utility locating firm like GPRS must be utilized to ensure that all buried utilities are located. The private locating process protects all site employees from potential line strike damages.
Concrete drilling, often used in construction projects for transportation infrastructure, comes at a risk. GPRS Project Managers are equipped with multiple technologies to clear areas prior to core drilling and anchoring. Our concrete scanning services can provide answers to questions regarding concrete thickness and concrete cover, rebar placement and layout, and dowel placement before ever breaking ground.
Priority number one in concrete scanning is protecting the structural integrity or strength of the concrete, making sure the integrity of the structure is safe. This knowledge is critical in initiatives toward repairing our nation’s structurally deficient bridges.
At GPRS, when we detect and mark sections of reinforcing steel embedded in the concrete, it guides concrete cutters and drillers away from the steel, helping them avoid injury and protecting the integrity of the concrete.
Raising the Report Card Grade
In order to move forward as a nation with economic growth and public safety at top of mind, we must invest in initiatives to rebuild America’s infrastructure systems. Roadways, bridges, and transit systems are at the forefront.
As local, state, and federal governments commit to investing in infrastructure needs, GPRS is ready to use our expertise to assist in the rebuild. Over the past 20 years, our team has built up experience scanning dowels on highway projects, mapping rebar and concrete cover on bridges, and locating utilities around mass transit systems.
GPRS can provide the information needed through reports and drawings, CAD or MicroStation drawings, satellite image overlays, maps and sketches of subsurface facilities and reinforcement.
GPRS envisions a tomorrow with the capability of 100% subsurface damage prevention. To learn more about GPRS, our services, and the ways in which we support America’s road, bridge, and transportation infrastructure rebuild, visit our website here.
