Worldwide

W.D.M. Limited has truly global operations, delivering road survey services throughout Europe, as well as in the Far East and Australasia. Equipment has been sold to 18 countries, including China and the USA.

The Company’s road condition survey projects, often supported by in-house consultancy services, work with clients to develop policies and road management systems for road and highway safety and more cost effective highway maintenance processes.

Work in the Far East and Australasia is co-ordinated through the Company’s Office in Wellington, New Zealand. 

WDM^® uses its own vehicles for the overseas highway and road surveys and often designs and builds specially adapted vehicles to provide the specialist measurements required in the most cost-effective configuration. The adaptations include variations to vehicle loading to comply with local requirements while maintaining the maximum efficiency of the survey operation.

An example is the development of a vehicle for use in road condition assessment in New Zealand and Australia. It combines the SCRIM^® survey test and high speed measurements of roughness, rut depth, macro-texture and alignment, together with a right-of-way video on a single vehicle. The vehicle is fitted with a rear tag axle to allow a larger water tank to be fitted for the long distances between water points in both countries, while not exceeding their rear axle load limits.

In New Zealand and Tasmania WDM^® has taken a leading role in working with the client to evaluate the link between skid resistance and wet road accident rates for local conditions. The outcome from this work has been skid policies, which improve road safety across their highway networks. In New Zealand according to the client’s analysis, the introduction of the policies has resulted in a near 40% reduction in the wet road accident rate.

Other examples of the Company’s work in developing tools for local conditions include the use of texture and skid resistance to provide an indicator of road and highway conditions where flushing has occurred. This allows water blasting and other appropriate road maintenance techniques to be targeted, and the use of financial and condition modelling to assess long term strategies.

When working overseas, WDM^® continually combines the best local knowledge and proven techniques with its own knowledge of international road and highway surveying equipment, processes and practices.

Long term international contracts have also enabled WDM^® to work closely with clients, providing WDM^® with sufficient stability to consider long term resourcing and the opportunity to innovate, both in terms of the client’s changing business needs and the knowledge of technical developments.

NZTA and WDM^® have worked together closely over the years in refining and developing a pragmatic yet accurate system to allow for the seasonal and weather related influence on the measurements of skid resistance. The client has identified the correction process as high risk and within the partnership approach WDM^® has freely shared its international experience in developing the current procedures.

Contracts have delivered a benefit to the environment that might not otherwise have been achieved. Three significant examples are the use of one test vehicle rather than two separate vehicles in New Zealand and Australia, the introduction of a new vehicle with the highest levels of emission control and the introduction of a water control device for skid testing.

WDM^® has also exported its technology world-wide, building SCRIM® machines for use in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain and the USA. 

WDM^®’s TM2 mini texture meter is also in use in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, where it’s been recognized as the definitive macro-texture measurement replacement for sand-patch testing.

* SCRIM is the registered trade mark of WDM®