PAS 2161
PAS 2161 & the WDM Approach
Background Information
The end of September saw the publication by BSi and the DfT of PAS 2161 – Road Condition Monitoring (RCM) data - Specification.
It was the culmination of 18 months discussion by a working group that included representatives of local and national government, survey and data management system suppliers and other stakeholders. W.D.M. Limited were part of this process.
The scoping study included surveying, in the summer of 2023, a study network based in Surrey by some experienced local authority highway engineers and prospective survey providers, of which WDM was one. The initial aim was to ascertain if a methodology could be developed that allowed many different survey approaches to report highway conditions in a consistent, repeatable and reproducible manner.
Following the publishing of a scoping study report by TRL, who acted as the technical experts for BSi & the DfT, the process moved on to the development of the standard as published. The next step, as presented by the DfT teams at conferences during the autumn of 2024, is to move to the demonstration by potential survey providers that they meet the requirements of PAS 2161. For this to happen, the DfT will need to compile a series of sites which are geographically diverse and are representative of the diverse English local highway network. The DfT have said that they hope to have this complete in the first quarter of 2025, with the first survey providers being approved by the end of the 2nd quarter of 2025. This will make the reporting of highway condition data to the new standard potentially difficult for 2025 returns, meaning that SCANNER surveys are likely to be required for the 2025/26 reporting period.
WDM’s Approach
WDM are committed to being one of the first suppliers of PAS 2161 compliant surveys and have been working hard to develop appropriate measures using our historical data sets to meet the requirements of the PAS. We are confident that based on our robust and repeatable data collection protocols, as used in our Road Assessment Vehicles (RAV) for the last 15 years, that we can achieve the required level of accuracy for PAS approval whilst also offering our valued clients additional data sets that will add nuance and detail to existing data streams.
What this means for the 2025 season is that any of our survey clients who have a WDM survey to the Scanner specification will receive two datasets for the cost of one survey. We will survey the required network and will report data to the existing Scanner specification and when our PAS compliant surveys are available, we will supply a PAS data set together with any additional data sets mentioned above. We believe that the best way to ensure confidence for you, as Local Authorities, is to allow you to make comparisons between the two standards based on data from your own networks. In this way, it will be easier for you to understand how the two data streams are relatable and what the relevant benefit to your maintenance decision making the new data standard might be.
If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please contact Andy Stevenson or Mark Stephenson directly and we will be happy to explore this with you.
