UKPMS Visual Surveys

The United Kingdom Pavement Management System (UKPMS) is a standard for systems that assist in the management of the highway network for local authorities.  There are currently several systems accredited which meet the standards required by UKPMS.

Visual inspections are generally carried out to produce the Audit Commission Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI’s), however these surveys are also used, along with other surveys like Deflectograph, SCANNER and SCRIM, to assist with identifying and prioritising maintenance schemes.

There are three types of survey currently used.  They are Coarse Visual Inspection (CVI), Detailed Visual Inspection (DVI) and Footway Network (FNS).  CVI is the more widely used survey technique for carriageways as this is a relatively fast, coarse survey, carried out from a vehicle.  DVI surveys are much slower as they are walked, however these surveys are designed to collect more detailed information and are generally only done on sites specifically identified as needing further investigation from previous surveys. The FNS survey has been introduced into UKPMS from 2010/11. This is a walked survey, intended to provide a simple, efficient and reliable survey to enable authorities to obtain a picture of the condition of their whole footway network.

All surveys are undertaken by accredited surveyors and to ensure consistency of surveys we undertake routine audits.