Advancing Pavement Profiler Certification: Ensuring Accurate and Repeatable Road Surface Measurements
Applied Pavement Technology, Inc. (APTech), in partnership with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), recently completed a significant research effort for the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT). The project culminated in the publication of the Report Number FHWA-ICT-26-013: Advancements in Profiler Certification. This work is helping ensure repeatable, accurate, and reproducible measurements of a pavement’s longitudinal profile, essential for ensuring in-service pavement ride quality and quality assurance of newly built pavements.
APTech’s Steve Karamihas, Ph.D., worked alongside IDOT on a study supporting the implementation of updated profiler certification methods that, in turn, yield high-quality measurements of roughness throughout a pavement’s life. Recent research and field demonstrations at the Illinois Certification and Research Track (ICART) have set new standards for accuracy and repeatability in pavement profiling, directly supporting state and federal requirements for road management and construction quality control.
“42 profilers travelled to ICART to participate in the profiler certification experiments. To my knowledge, this was the second largest gathering of profilers at a single location in history. We are grateful for their efforts and their interest. We hope the research provided value to the participants and that the recommendations will lead to improvements in profiler measurements over the long term,” said Steve.
This research examined profiler certification methods for three types of profilers: conventional inertial profilers, inertial profilers enhanced for urban and low-speed operation, and walking-speed profilers. All three testing approaches incorporated elements of the certification practices recommended in AASHTO R 56-25, including testing across a diverse set of surface types to quantify profiler repeatability and accuracy.
Road profilers measure details of the pavement surface that help engineers understand the behavior of their pavements. Through research and hands-on fieldwork, APTech and IDOT will help drive improvements to AASHTO profile measurement standards, motivate innovations in profiler equipment, and deepen practitioners’ understanding of how to interpret profile measurements. This research demonstrated and refined methods to ensure pavement engineers receive accurate information from measured profiles.
IDOT's John Senger emphasized the value of the research and APTech’s role in the study. “The research completed in this project was very valuable in highlighting ICART’s capabilities and finding plenty of room for improvement in safety, efficiency, and procedures. The staff in IDOT’s Bureau of Research are busy implementing the findings of this research to improve the overall testing and certification experience at ICART. I am very grateful to Dr. Karamihas and the APTech staff for all their hard work and insightful recommendations,” said John.
To learn more, read the full report here or find out more about APTech’s Pavement Evaluation and Design Program.