The Highways Agency will soon be able to reinstate a measure of the structural condition of its motorway and trunk road network - with the Traffic Speed Deflectometer. Routine structural assessment of the UK motorway and trunk road network is due to resume later this year when a new surveying vehicle is introduced. This can survey road deflection under load at traffic speed and therefore without causing disruption to traffic. The 'Traffic Speed Deflectometer' (TSD) has been designed to collect structural condition data while travelling at 'normal' traffic speeds - around 50MPH. It supersedes the previous Deflectograph vehicle, which carried out road condition surveys at a slow walking pace. The Deflectograph monitored the structural strength of roads in the UK for over 30 years up until 2000 when it was withdrawn for routine surveys, due in part to the disruption it caused road users.
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