News: Stepping up a gear

New landmark for the REVEAL Construction Database

March 2006
Launched in the UK in July 2005, the REVEAL Construction Database now contains road construction information from a third of all UK highways authorities.

Since Reveal’s launch, Aperio has added GPR data for 16,000 lane kilometres of the UK road network. At the time of writing, this includes 4,000 lane kilometres of motorways and trunk roads, 7,000 lane/km of A roads, 2,500 lane/km of B roads and 3,000 lane/km of C roads.

Reveal provides clients with ‘pay-as-you-go’ pavement construction information: Aperio conduct the GPR surveys and store the information, allowing clients to buy the information they need, when they need it. Clients can access the online database at www.revealdatabase.com to check availability and place their order. Results are normally provided in a few days in one of three formats.

Clients from all around the UK are using Reveal to get simple and speedy access to construction information for both local and trunk roads. Some clients, such as the AmeyMouchel team managing Highways Agency Area 10 in north-west England have opted to commission Aperio to survey their network to guarantee prioritised complete coverage including slip roads and hard shoulders and ensure that they will have a reliable picture of the subsurface wherever they are working in the next few years. At local authority level, many clients are benefiting from the partnership between surface condition survey specialists Data Collection Limited and Aperio, which means that GPR surveys are combined with mandatory Scanner surveys at no additional charge. The authority can rest assured that the construction information for their roads has been collected for free, leaving them to ‘dip into the database’ to get the information they need without the fuss and expense of organising another survey. Liverpool City Council is one of the groups to benefit. Victor Townson, Network Systems Manager at Enterprise welcomes the flexibility of choice offered by REVEAL: “In the past you were committed to having GPR for the whole network which is expensive when you only need details for specific areas such as a road scheme. REVEAL allows you to dip in for a high level of detail as and when you need it.”

Progress since the launch of Reveal has been impressive. Reveal Product Manager Diana Scruby is thrilled with the response: “data is pouring into the server, but the really encouraging thing is the response from clients: we have had orders from every level of authority in England and Wales, including County and Metropolitan Borough Councils, Unitary Authorities and London Boroughs as well as from DBFO’s and Highways Agency areas”.

Building on the success to date, the Reveal machine is set to step up a gear in 2006, with Aperio dedicating a new team to surveys throughout the UK, in addition to a second DCL Scanner vehicle that is currently under construction.

If you like to find out more about the REVEAL Construction Database then contact or jon.baston-pitt@aperio.co.uk.