SLOVENIAN EXPERIENCE OF USING WIM DATA FOR ROAD

PLANNING AND MAINTENANCE

Robert Brozovič Aleš Žnidarič Vinko Vodopivec

Cestel d.o.o., Slovenian National Building Ministry of transport, Slove-
Ljubljana, Slovenia and Civil Engineering Insti- nian Road Administration,
tute, Ljubljana, Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract
Over the last 3 years a network of 30 WIM sites has been established in Slovenia to cover all
major routes of the main state road network with portable bridge WIM system. Results of meas-
urements revealed that everywhere the real traffic loading was higher than if calculated accord-
ing to the Technical specifications for traffic loading. Furthermore, overloading turned to be a
serious problem and thus WIM system were used also to select locations and periods for static
weighing control with the police. Consequently, a high-speed WIM enforcement procedure is
being discussed. A study based on measured WIM data showed that when applying appropriate
tolerances of WIM system the sum of overloading fines could exceed 300 million Euros per
year which is approximately 30 times more than it is collected at present from static weight con-
trols. Unfortunately, the present legislature in Slovenia does not allow yet using weigh-in-
motion data for direct enforcement of the overloaded vehicles.
Keywords: SiWIM, bridge WIM system, enforcement, mobility, overloading, loading, traffic

Resume
Au cours des 3 dernières années un réseau de 30 WIM sites a été établi en Slovénie pour cou-
vrir toutes les routes principales d'état avec les systèmes portatifs de pesage par pont instrumen-
té. Les résultats des mesures ont indiqué que partout le vrai chargement de trafic était plus haut
que si s'accorder calculé selon les spécifications techniques pour le chargement de trafic. En
outre, la surcharge tournée pour être un problème sérieux et système de WIM ont été employées
ainsi également pour choisir des endroits et des périodes pour la commande pesante statique
avec la police. En conséquence, une procédure d'application des surcharges automatique avec
WIM est discutée. Une étude basée sur des données mesurées de WIM a prouvé qu'en appli-
quant des tolérances appropriées de système de WIM que la somme des fines de surcharger
pourrait excéder 300 millions d'Euros par an ce qui est approximativement 30 fois davantage
qu'il est rassemblé actuellement des commandes statiques de poids. Malheureusement, la légi-
slature en Slovénie ne laisse pas employer encore des données de pesage en marche pour l'ap-
plication directe des véhicules surchargés.
Mots-clés: SiWIM, pesage par pont instrumenté, application, mobilité, surchargeant le charge-
ment, le trafic
1. Introduction
With its 20.000 km² Slovenia is one of the smallest countries of the European Union. It how-
ever plays an important role from the transport point of view as it is crossed by two of the heav-
ily trafficked Trans European corridors: the 5th, going from South West to the North East of
Europe, and the 10th, going from the North West of Europe to Turkey and Greece.
Slovenia’s 7000 km long state road network is equipped with around 600 mainly automatic traf-
fic counters that provide up-to-date information about the traffic volumes. Traditionally, this
data has also been the main input for the ESAL (Equivalent Single Axle Load) method, which
is used in design and maintenance
of pavements. As counting data
cannot give any information about
real axle loads, especially about
their overloading, the Slovene Road
Administration decided to start ac-
quiring the weigh-in-motion (WIM)
data. Over the last 3 years a net-
work of 30 WIM sites has been es-
tablished to cover all major routes
of the main state road network
(Figure 1). Four portable bridge
WIM systems are used to perform
the 7-day measurements twice per
year on each of the sites. The results
Figure 1 – Slovenian network of WIM sites of weighing exceeded some of the
most pessimistic expectations.

2. WIM (weigh-in-motion) measurements

Traffic counters collect traffic volume data and are therefore essential when collecting data for
traffic, freight and other analyses. They however do not provide any information about the real
axle loads, which is an important parameter when assessing realistic pavement or bridge load-
ings. Axle loads can only be obtained with WIM measurements, where all free flow vehicles
heavier than 3,5 t are weighed. This data is typically used to calculate load effects on pavement,
most often using the ESAL (Equivalent Single Axle Load) methods.
There are 2 major groups of WIM systems available on the market, the better known pavement
and the relatively new bridge WIM systems. The main difference between them is that while all
pavement WIM systems require sensors that are built into the top layer of the pavement, the
bridge WIM systems, such as the Slovenian SiWIM, instrument the existing bridges with sen-
sors and thus, the superstructures of these bridges act as the measuring platforms. Deflections
(strains) of the structures are then, with information about the speed and axle distances of vehi-
cles, used to calculate the axle loads and the gross weight.
The main advantages of the SiWIM system are:
• high accuracy of results due to the long weighing platform,
• system can be installed without damaging the pavement,
• they cause minimal or even no disturbance of the traffic and thus no traffic delays,
• system can be easily and price-efficiently moved from one location to another without influencing
accuracy of the results.
3. WIM results – the Slovene example
Based on some preliminary test measurements in years 2000 and 2001, the Slovene Road Ad-
ministration decided in 2002 to start collecting traffic data at 20 different locations on the main
road network. A year after this number was extended to 30 sites. Each location is visited twice a
year and every time the measurements last for 7 days. Four SiWIM systems are used to accom-
plish the 60 measurements in around 8 months. From each location 14 days of information of
vehicles heavier than 3,5 tonnes is collected: axle loads, gross weight, axle distances, speed,
class (type of the vehicle), time and date of passage, temperature etc..

4. Calculation of traffic loading

Accurate traffic loading data is essential for efficient planning and reconstruction of roads. The
Slovenian specifications for traffic loading (TSC 2001), from hereon denoted as Specifications,
account for the traditional ESAL (Equivalent Single Axle Load) method. One ESAL is defined
as a 4-wheel single axle of 82 kN and all other axles are compared to such nominal axle. Then,
the total load effect of a traffic flow is calculated using the formula:
N
ESAL = 10 −8 × ∑ f o × ( f k × Ai ) 4
i =1

where:
ESAL - influence factor of axle load according to nominal axle load of 82 kN
fo - axle type factor (2,212 for single, 0,0195 for double and 0,0048 for triple axles)
fk - wheel type factor (1,0 for twin regular, 1,2 for super single (wide) and 1,3 for regu-
lar single tires)
Ai - individual axle loads in kN
N - number of axles
The well known effect of this formula is that, due to the power of 4, the traffic loading is not
proportional to the axle load. For example, a 20% raise of axle load increases the ESAL value
for 107%.

5. Weigh-in-motion results
A whole range of different results was obtained from the measured WIM data to get an over-
view about the traffic loading situation on the Slovene main roads. At present data is mainly
used for traffic planning, but also for pavement design and reconstruction and in limited cases,
for bridge assessment and for calculation of load limits on bridges.

Figure 2 – Two examples of bridges used for regular WIM measurements in Slovenia
 Clearly, contribution of different categories of vehicles was different (Figure 3). The articulated
vehicles (tractor-trailers and semi-trailers), for example, contribute almost 60% to the total load-
ing, while all cars and light vehicles with gross weight below 3,5t can be neglected, with less
than 0,1% of total contribution. Then, loading varied considerably from one site to another.
Figure 4, above, exhibits ratio of 1:20 between the most and the least trafficked road sections.
Also, results prove that the number of overloaded vehicles does not say much about the real
overloading. On one side the lowest overloading (5% of additional ESAL values) was caused
by 9% lightly overloaded vehicles (site 19 in Figure 4, below). The other extreme was the site
10 with 103% of additional ESAL values caused by 25% of the overloaded vehicles.
Not unexpectedly, the real loading and loading calculated by multiplying the traffic counting
data with the general factors from the Specifications (the 100% line) differ considerably. While
on the least trafficked section the measured value was only 5% higher than if obtained from the
Specifications, an increase of +188% was observed on a site with high number of heavily over-

100%

70,9%
Proportion of ESAL by Specifications
80%

58,4%
Proportion of ESAL by WIM
60%

40%

16,4%
12,7%

12,5%
10,3%

10,0%
8,8%

20%
0,1%

0,0%

0%
Cars Buses Light trucks Middle- Heavy trucks Trailers
weight trucks

Figure 4 – Proportion of cumulative ESAL values per vehicle category

9
Thousands

8 Allowed traffic loading Overloading

Average Daily ESAL

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
2,92
1,06
1,36
2,74
0,22
0,58
0,76
2,11
0,28
0,38
0,42
0,56
1,18
0,36
0,60
0,97
4,97
3,93
0,90
2,06
0,58
0,66
0,60
1,12
1,65
0,38
0,84
7,55
1,70
1,15

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

120%
103%

Proportion of overloaded vehicles Additional overloading

100%
86%
ESALWIM/ESALTSC

81%

80%

80%
58%
57%

55%

60%
49%
49%
48%
33%

33%

32%

31%
29%

40%
26%

25%

25%

25%

24%
23%
23%

21%
21%

21%
20%

20%

20%

19%
19%

18%
18%

17%

16%
15%

15%
14%
12%

12%
12%

11%
11%
10%

10%

20%
9%
9%

9%
9%

8%
8%

8%

8%

8%
7%

8%

7%

7%
6%
6%

5%

0%
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Figure 4 – Proportion of cumulative ESAL values per vehicle category (above) and additional
loading compared to the Specifications with proportion of overloading (below)
loaded vehicles. In other words, in this case the pavement carried 188% more loading than it
can be calculated from the Specifications. Green bars show values with supposition of no over-
loading on these sections, i.e. in a case that all overloaded vehicles would be loaded only to
their legal limits. Even in such unrealistic case the Specifications would overestimate the traffic
in only 2 cases, which clearly indicates that the present loading factors in the specs need to be
thoroughly revised.

281%

288%
300% 261%
Total load effects Without overloadings

256%

251%
275%

238%
250%

221%

219%
215%

209%
203%
202%

202%
202%
225%

194%
192%
FEWIM/FETSC

186%
185%

183%
179%

177%
200%
175%

174%

174%
173%

167%

159%
159%
157%

157%
155%

155%
152%

152%
152%

175%

149%

148%

148%
146%
146%
142%

141%

140%

139%
139%
132%
131%

131%

129%

128%
150% 126%

125%

118%
117%

117%

116%
107%
105%
125%
100%

92%
75%

73%
50%
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Figure 5 – Increase of the real traffic loading compared to the values from the Specifications

6. Accuracy of results
Accuracy was for all 30 locations (60 measurements) calculated according to the COST 323
specifications (COST 323, 2002). In all cases 1 or 2 pre-weighed trucks were used for calibra-
tion and their runs were evaluated accordingly to obtain the accuracy classes. It must me noted
however, that due to the nature of data collection and limited funding only simple calibrations
were done. The advanced SiWIM features, for example the calibration by axle rank, were there-
fore not used. Nevertheless, if approach to the bridge was smooth, even classes A(5) for gross
weight, for single axle and for multiple axle loads were not exceptional. The majority of meas-
urements fell into accuracy classes B(10) and C(15). Bridges with bumpy approach caused ac-
curacy to decrease to classes D+(20), D(25) and in one case even to E(30).

7. Distribution of traffic loading and overloading along a day

In order to specify the optimal time for the static weigh control, a further few WIM measure-
ments were done for the Road Administration. Figure 7 shows traffic situation not far from a
border crossing along a Sunday when in Slovenia the heavy vehicles over 7,5 tones gross mass
are not allowed to drive between 6 o’clock in the morning and 10 o’clock in the evening. But
then all of them, including some heavily overloaded ones, hit the road.

25
Lane 1 Lane 2
Number of sites

20
15
10
5
0
A(5) B+(7) B(10) C(15) D+(20) >D+(20)
WIM classes

Figure 6 – Histogram of the attained accuracy classes for 60 measurements in year 2003
 70
Lane 1 Lane 2
60
Gross vehicle mass (tons)

50
40
30
20
10
0
0:00 2:00 4:00 6:00 8:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 24:00

Figure 7 – Daily distribution of heavy traffic

Figure 8 presents results of another WIM measurement which was done on a road from a mo-
torway construction site to a land deposit site. The road section was critical because, first, with
the axle load limit of 6 tones it was not intended for such heavy traffic and second, due to the
construction site, heavy overloadings were expected. Results, however, were beyond any ex-
pectations. The total loading, expressed in ESAL values, was 8× higher than if calculated ac-
cording to the Specifications. Furthermore,
due to the severe axle load limits, only 5%
1800
1600
of the total 1745 ESALs were due to the le-
1400 gal loading and all the rest was overloading.
1200 On an average day, more than 70% of trucks
ESAL

1000 1622,2 over 3,5 tones in one of the 2 lanes were

800
600
overloaded. The truck drivers were clearly
400 aware of this as on the day when the static
200
82,3
209,0 weighing control with the police was pre-
0
WIM Specifications sent, the total daily ESAL value fell to only
1/3 of the loading of other comparable days.
Figure 8 – Extension of overloading on one Not surprisingly, the road was ruined long
of the heavily trafficked sites before the construction site was closed.

8. Potential for enforcement

The three enforcement teams with static scales that circulate around Slovenia every day fined
several thousands of overloaded trucks in 2003. This, however, corresponded to only 0,5% of
all overloaded vehicles recorded with the WIM systems. Consequently, a high-speed WIM en-
forcement procedure is being discussed. It has been envisaged to account for the real accuracy
of the WIM measurements and to specify the corresponding tolerances that would ensure 99,9%
confidence in the results of the overloading vehicles. Applying such tolerances to the 2003
WIM data reduced the number of ‘surely’ overloaded vehicles to only 45% of the original
number. But even if all of them were fined with amounts 10-times smaller than today, the sum
of these fines would exceed 300 million Euros per year, which is 30 times more than it is col-
lected with the present static controls. Unfortunately, the legislature in Slovenia does not allow
yet using weigh-in-motion data for direct enforcement of the overloaded vehicles.
9. Conclusion
After many years of attempts WIM measurements have become a constituent part of traffic data
collection for the Slovene road administration. Thirty sites were selected for regular measure-
ments and are visited twice a year for a week.
Results showed that everywhere the real traffic loading was higher than if calculated according
to the Technical specifications for traffic loading on roads, which in Slovenia are still used on a
daily basis. This method simply multiplies the counting data by different factors that correspond
to the type of the vehicles (light trucks, medium-sized trucks, heavy trucks, tractor-trailers and
buses). WIM measurements proved that these factors are obsolete (they were adopted more than
20 years ago) and that they do not represent adequately the modern vehicle fleet. The real load-
ing on all 30 sites exceeded the one from the Specifications on average for 80% and even for
188% in the worst case. The second reason for underestimation of true loading was that over-
loading is not accounted for at all in the present Specifications. Measurements revealed that on
average every sixth heavy vehicle was overloaded, either its gross weight or at least one of the
axles or both. This added 33% to the ESAL loading if compared to the regularly loaded vehi-
cles, varying from 6% to 103% on different road sections. Furthermore:
• at some locations traffic loading was considerably different from one lane to another,
• results clearly identified the most critical types of vehicles on specific road sections and
• in some cases even a small number of overloaded vehicles considerably increased the total
traffic loading on that road section.
Based on the success of the WIM measurements for collecting traffic data and for prescreening
for static weight enforcement, new applications are being introduced. One of them is pre-
selection for static weighing with camera and license plate recognition. The other one are meas-
urements on bridges that need to be assessed. In this cases, the bridge WIM system can provide
some additional statistically evaluated structural parameters, such as distribution of loads under
traffic and dynamic amplification factors. The first set of 15 bridges is currently being worked
on.

10. References
• COST 323 (2002), Final report, LCPC, Paris, eds. B. Jacob, E.J. O'Brien and S. Jehaes.
• WAVE (2001), Bridge WIM, Report of Work Package 1.2, WAVE, eds. E.J. O'Brien and A.
Žnidarič, University College Dublin and ZAG Ljubljana.
• WAVE (2002), Final report, LCPC, Paris.
• Moses, F. (1979), “Weigh-in-Motion System Using Instrumented Bridges” in Transportation
Engineering Journal of ASCE, Proceedings of the ASCE, Vol.105, No.TE3, 233-249.
• TSC (2001), Technical specifications for roads “TSC 06.511 – Traffic Loading – Definition
and Classification«, Slovene Road Administration, in Slovene.
• Žnidarič, A., Lavrič, I., Kalin, J. (1999), “Bridge WIM measurements on short slab bridges”
in Weigh-in-motion of Road Vehicles, Hermes Science Publications, Paris, 217-226.
• Žnidarič, A., Lavrič, I. and Kalin, J. (2002), “Free-of-Axle detector bridge WIM measure-
ments on short slab bridges” in Proceedings of the 3rd International WIM Conference, Orlando.