DPWH Conducts National Road Roughness Survey

A nationwide program to check the roughness of national roads will be made, under the supervision of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Assisted by the department's Regional and District Engineering Offices, consultant, RoadKorea Inc. in joint venture with Cybersoft Integrated Geoinformatics, Inc. (RKI JV CIGI) will conduct the National Road Roughness Index Program III (NRRIP III) in various regions of the country.

DPWH Secretary Mark Villar said the survey eyes to cover a total of 12,382 kilometers of all primary national roads nationwide and secondary national roads in National Capital Region (NCR); Regions VI, VII, VIII in Visayas; and Regions IX, XI, XII in Mindanao.

"We are supervising the Consultant in the deployment of survey vehicles equipped with special survey equipment such as the laser profilometer, distance measurement instrument, cameras, global positioning system (GPS) and special laptop computers to complete activities for NRRIP III," Villar said.

The secretary claimed that the program will be identifying and gauging the level roughness of national roads based on the International Roughness Index (IRI).

Afterward, the results will be utilized as major input to the country's Pavement Management System (PMS) in coming up with a "recommendation on the necessary intervention to improve the safety and quality of thoroughfares," he explained.

Last January 28, the DPWH Samar First District Engineering Office, in partnership with the DPWH Region VIII Office and the Consultant, was able to perform the road survey in Samar roads.

Villar said NRRIP III serves as one of the basis of identifying priority projects of the Department.