The Complete Management Solution

The Daily Telegraph Business Club has commissioned an independent film profile of W.D.M. Limited, its approach as a company, how it’s evolved and developed and the factors behind its success. From its beginnings more than five decades ago W.D.M. Limited has focused its attention on listening closely and responding to the needs of its customers. It’s a simple formula, but one that is all too often overlooked as companies evolve and expand. Today the business specialises in designing equipment to monitor highways and pavements and to assess their maintenance needs.

W.D.M. Limited is widely recognised as a leader in its sector, providing services to most UK local authorities, and has reached this position by working closely with its clients to provide equipment and services that are genuinely invaluable. The Daily Telegraph film charts the company’s development and explains how it is working hard to develop the same close relationships with road engineers across the globe. Click here to view.

Planning is underway for the 4th International Safer Roads Conference, which will take place in the UK in May 2014 with the overriding theme that ‘saving lives through safer roads doesn’t happen by accident’. Delegates attending the 2011 conference in Queensland, Australia, left with aspirations to continue their work as life savers and contribute to saving millions of lives by seeking engineering solutions to the road war.

The third conference was the first in the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, launched in May 2011, which emphasises an aspect not normally included in meetings on road safety - the road surface. The 4th Conference will continue the Decade of Action initiative by encouraging the building of partnerships, the sharing of data and information and the development of technical capacity. For further information and to view papers from the first three conferences visit the 2014 conference website www.saferroads.org.uk

The updated TM2 surface texture meter with the latest electronics is the result of an extensive in-house research and development programme by WDM® to provide all the functionality of a routine texture measurement instrument, coupled with extensive analysis tools.

The TM2 is recognized as delivering the definitive macro texture measurement standard. The updated TM2 measures a broad swathe of the road profile transversely over a width of 100mm at very frequent intervals to build a detailed record of the surface, with its average texture depth, and delivers repeatable and consistent results.

It is widely recognised that pavement texture is an extremely important factor in the control of surface friction and subsequent road safety. It is also an important parameter for the determination of factors such as noise emission from vehicle tyres.

Road Assessment Vehicles (RAVs) carry out high speed data acquisition and recording of surface conditions, including automatic recognition of surface cracking. This gives performance indicators to enable maintenance work to be prioritised and National Indicators to be calculated.

WDM® has been undertaking high speed data acquisition surveys since the late 1980’s and has been using RAVs, which include the automatic measurement of cracking, since 2000. Over that period the Company has developed expert knowledge and skills to undertake the surveys quickly, but safely, and to process and deliver the data accurately to agreed timescales.