In 1998, the PIARC committee C1 on Surface Characteristics carried out a worldwide experiment to investigate the performance of different high speed profiling equipment.

The design of the different pieces of equipment clearly reflects the policy of what is considered sufficient information (in the different countries) when measuring longitudinal and transverse profiles. The results of this PIARC experiment will therefore be a primary tool for road administrations around the world to pinpoint exactly the device, which meets their specific requirements for monitoring their road network.

The results from this experiment will bring knowledge and expertise, which will be of benefit not only to the countries already using high-speed profiling techniques but also to countries planning to introduce these techniques on their road networks.