The Weigh-in-Motion (WiM) weighing system, realised by the Swiss company Kistler, will soon start operating on the bridge across the Khadzhibey Estuary.

The Weight-in-Motion system from Swiss manufacturer Kistler offers the Ukrainian road authorities (Ukravtodor) the possibility to automatically fine overloaded trucks. In addition, Ukravtodor will be able to analyse the data and predict when a given road surface will need maintenance.

45 WiM sites have already been set up on crucial transport routes across Ukraine. They weigh all passing vehicles without disrupting traffic and transmit the data to a control cabinet by the road for analysis. If the vehicle is too heavy, a camera automatically takes a picture of the license plate and sends the information to the road authorities, which can then fine the driver or transport company.

They estimate that almost every second truck circulating on major Ukrainian transport routes is either overweight or violate size restrictions. After a road has been constructed or repaired, damages start to appear almost immediately.

Oleksandr Kubrakov, chairman of Ukravtodor wrote on the agency’s website that if everything is left as it is, a newly constructed road’s lifespan is a mere two years. To prevent this scenario, the national government launched a campaign to combat weight violations on Ukrainian roads that includes large-scale introduction of WiM stations to back up the government’s resolve. The plan is to have 250 WiM stations in Ukraine by 2025.

Kistler says that the Ukraine is not the first country in the region to install WiM technology on a large scale to reduce the number of overloaded vehicles.

We have been providing WiM systems for direct enforcement in countries like the Czech Republic, Russia and Hungary for several years now.

Combined with our expertise in collecting and analysing data from the sensors, our practical experience has allowed us to build a complete system that is very precise and reliable. All its components are streamlined and work hand in hand.

Tomas Pospisek, regional manager for Eastern Europe at Kistler Group

At the end of April of this year, traffic was opened in the Odessa region on the repaired bridge across the Khadzhibey estuary, which is part of the M-05 Kyiv-Odessa highway. Today, the Weigh-in-Motion system is being set up here, which has already been pre-built into the road surface.

The sensors are built into the asphalt pavement and are located in such a way that it is impossible to bypass them.

Ukravtodor (Ukrainian State Agency for Roads)

To adjust the operation of the system, traffic through the Khadzhibey Estuary was limited, on June 24 and 25.

Source: Transport Strategy Centre