History of W.D.M. Ltd.
Est. 1945
W.D.M. Limited is a family-owned company that was founded in 1945 by the late Chairman, Mr. L.A.J. Gardiner, MBE. It has developed over the last 50 years and has become recognised as a world leader in the highway asset management sector. The Company specialises in designing equipment to monitor highway pavements as well as the assessment of maintenance needs.
At its founding, WDM® had set out to provide engineering support for industry and government. In the 1950’s and 1960’s it expanded rapidly into designing, manufacturing and installing high-energy physics, high vacuum, remote and mechanical handling, hypersonic wind tunnel and gas purification equipment.
The Company had a change in direction in 1967 after the development and manufacture of the SCRIM® road survey machine.
Since the 1970s, its research and development team has used its unrivalled experience and technical expertise to increase the range of advanced technology equipment, software and surveying services. WDM® is today the UK’s leading manufacturer of highway survey machines.
The 1970’s also saw the development of a Survey Services Department, which used the Company’s equipment to provide high quality routine monitoring surveys. Additional expertise was developed in manual inventory, condition and safety surveys, through the use of hand-held computers.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s, the Company introduced a consultancy service to provide a complete highway maintenance management service for clients in the United Kingdom and overseas. In the 1990s, WDM® set up an office in New Zealand, where it has been providing survey services ever since.
After the establishment of our Computer Services Department, it has since expanded to include the provision of comprehensive computerised highway maintenance and integrated asset management systems. These link road and highway condition data with a number of other types of data including accidents, structures, street works, street lighting, and more.
As the Company looks towards the future, it has established a foothold in the American market, by founding a subsidiary company, W.D.M. USA. The fourth generation of the Gardiner family is heavily involved and is working to ensure that W.D.M. Ltd continues moving forward whilst retaining the values that the Company was founded on.