Proposed alternative to assist current overload operations in South Africa

Abstract

Efficient overload control is of utmost importance to protect the road infrastructure in any region. An investigation into the status quo of overload control in South Africa provided evidence of low efficiencies and many instances of systematic evasion of overload control regulations without effective enforcement. In this article, we analyse data to obtain empirical evidence of the level of inefficiencies and to identify the primary factors that affect overload behaviour and the efficiency of current enforcement measures. The data used consist of traffic flow, weigh-in-motion and static scale data over the period 2012 to 2015. We propose an improved overload control system based on more accurate monitoring of road user behaviour using a combination of technologies and the more intelligent use of available data, and discuss the legal implications of the proposed application and steps needed for a pilot deployment of the proposed system.