Abstract:
The current most advanced WIM systems distributed worldwide have already proven their
capacity for weight enforcement. The question of whether or not precise weight
measurements are possible in highway speeds is no longer open, as many systems have
shown good results in this direction. Now, other questions start to arise in the industry.
One of the main questions is: in large road networks, where should we install WIM sensors
so that they achieve their maximum efficiency? It is proven that the enforcement system as
a whole is ineffective if improper locations are chosen, and effective if the locations are
well chosen. In this paper, the method that is currently being used by the Brazilian National
Land Infrastructure Department (DNIT) is presented. It is a spatial decision support system
(SDSS) that includes a multi-criteria method developed to facilitate decision-making in this
process by summarizing a set of important information into a single index named IVFP.
The adopted philosophy is not to make the decision on behalf of the road entity but, rather,
to provide the planner with accessible information regarding the road network and a unified
index that highlights segments for weight enforcement. The Brazilian approach is
presented so that it can serve as a starting point for the international community, as this is
a problem that will become common in the next few years.
