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Automated Oversize/Overweight (OS/OW) permit issuing systems can enable a significant level of service improvement to motor carriers. The prime concerns of the trucking community, speed of permit delivery and 24/7 availability, and those of the issuing authority, safety on the highways and preservation of infrastructure, can be simultaneously addressed through Internet-based self-issuing systems. Such systems ensure that appropriate administrative and technical routing reviews conclude that the vehicle should be permitted and can safely travel the specified routes before issuing a permit document.
Bentley has worked with 18 U.S. states and one Canadian province to successfully implement systems that are now issuing a combined total of about 2,000,000 permits per year. Bentley’s offering is centered on a core product, Bentley SUPERLOAD, which is configured to enforce the agency-specific permit rules and to enable routing on the agency’s selected network. The network includes the desired highways and surface streets. The analysis on the network will include dimensional and weight restrictions that are potential constraints to the passage of each specifically permitted OS/OW load. The route analysis can even extend to include a full live load analysis across each of the structures on the route. An array of industry standard data can be used as the input for live load analysis, maximizing the use of existing data.
“The State of Alabama has recently purchased and is currently using the SUPERLOAD product,” said James R. Braden, Assistant State Maintenance Engineer. “We are pleased with this product and would recommend it to other states that are interested in improving their permit issuing process while protecting their investment in the highway infrastructure.”
The continued growth of truck traffic, the pressure for reduction of government agency costs, and the need to be more responsive to public – in this case the motor carrier community – make a higher degree of automation not only an attractive choice but rather a necessity. Bentley staff has worked with many government agencies to implement permitting and routing systems. In many cases this leads to a functional change in the business exchange between the agency and motor carriers. Applicants no longer have to wait for the permit office to open, but rather can get a permit at any time of day or night for travel as soon as allowed by the permit rules.
Ensuring Safety and Preserving Infrastructure
Convenience for the community is a great asset, but safety and infrastructure preservation are clearly major concerns for both the government and the public. Permit rules have been established over time to ensure the safe passage of oversize/overweight loads. Some are related to configuration of the load (for example: axle spacing), others to protection of the infrastructure (for example: routing roads around over-bridges with insufficient clearance), and others are operational (for example: pilot cars to escorting loads and warning other users on the highway). The automated system ensures that permit rules, configured in a database, and routing restrictions, applied to the highway network, are strictly enforced.
In addition to consideration of dimensional restrictions, SUPERLOAD has for many years been executing a full live load analysis for each bridge crossed on the routes. Using standard AASHTO VIRTIS or BARS data, or Bentley BridgeModeler/Bentley LARS data, the in-built AASHTO approved bridge analysis engine runs a full live load analysis in less than .02 seconds per bridge (using the Allowable Stress and Load Factor methods, and soon the Load and Resistance Factor Rating method). The ability to leverage the most current bridge condition information provides an additional degree of assurance in the safe transport of oversize/overweight loads.
Changes to the network, including new roads, modified clearances, and re-rated bridges can all be accommodated with update tools provided as part of the core product. It is also easy to impose immediate and short term restrictions with the Restriction Manager. Authorized users can add any one of the full range of restriction types, specifying, where required, start and finish dates/times. Hence, planned construction requiring lane closures can be added as a temporary restriction. Trucks that can no longer pass due reduced highway clearances will be routed around the construction, until the planned travel date is later than the date on which construction will be complete.
Convenience for the Motor Carrier Community
Many oversize/overweight moves cross state boundaries, presenting a challenge to the motor carrier and the multiple agencies involved. Agencies have developed characteristic permitting rules to suit each environment, requiring motor carriers to obtain a permit for travel in each agency with jurisdiction over any part of the move. Although life would be easier for the carriers if all agency permit rules were identical, most agency rules were established for good reasons and would require much legislative activity to change. To solve this problem Bentley has developed the GotPermits multi-state portal. Motor carriers and permitting agencies log on to the www.gotpermits.com site to request and receive multiple state permits through a single request.
“Out of all the states for which we need permits, your Web site is the most user-friendly. I will definitely utilize gotpermits.com again!” said Georgi Wright, Eddie Wright Trucking, LLC
SUPERLOAD works with GotPermits.com
for easy routing and permitting on the Internet.
Transparent to the permit requestor, GotPermits identifies the minimum set of application information required to obtain permits from each of the states on the route. This data is collected in a single GotPermits form and parsed and submitted, again transparent to the user, to each of the states on the route. Permits for each agency are delivered to the requestor as secure PDF documents. The carrier makes a single request and pays a single fee. Each agency on the route sees a single permit request, issues a permit in accordance with existing rules, and receives the appropriate fee. GotPermits deals seamlessly with the multi-state process.
West Virginia, who pioneered implementation of the GotPermits system, has been online through the portal for more than two years. Automating permitting and routing has resulted in process improvements for both the agency and the motor carriers. WVDOT Commissioner Mattox said, “Implementing efficiencies in our permitting process can only help businesses remain successful.”