The project statistics: 14,000 kilometers, 38 regions, 61 days, four cars and two bikes. The organizers are activists of “The Bombed Roads” public movement. The supporters are the Ministry of Transport of Russia and ROSATOM. On the route from the Japanese Sea to the Black Sea the four-runner is piloted by a crew of three representatives of the sectoral research institute NIITFA (designs methods and apparatus functioning basing on different physical principles of matter-to-radiation interaction). They are responsible for the scientific part of the project, i.e. demonstration measurements by the innovative instrument “Condor”.
The instrument is based on a scanner, which traces in real time the road cover by various parameters, the main of which is the road cover density. The scanner has a built-in X-ray densitometer, movement sensor, GPS navigator and information collection and processing unit. The information is transmitted to the laboratory. The measurement error is not more than 1%; speed is up to 89 km/h. If necessary, the sensor can do radiation monitoring of the upper layer of the road cover.
The NIITFA development will provide a competent detailed scientifically grounded analysis of the Russian roads. Measurement results will be put in a final report, which the rally participants intend to produce and submit to the country’s leadership.
The second important mission of the NIITFA’s specialists is to commercially promote the instrument in the regions of Russia. Last year, when “Condor” was made public, the sensors were built-in the car trailer. This year the instrument has been advanced. Now the sensors are installed on the four-runner’s chassis. The vehicle was provided by ROSATOM. According to estimates, the fully packed system will cost the user about RUB 7-7.7 million.
Conditions of the road infrastructure directly influence the regional economy. With “Condor” the customers will get reliable data on quality of road work done by contractors, such as how much crushed stone was used and how much asphalt was spread. They will find out with perfect accuracy the wetting zones, hollows, alien inclusions, pavement roughness degree. It is not by chance that “Condor” is called the road polygraph.
