Installation of a weigh-in-motion
scale.
International Road Dynamics (IRD) is a Saskatoon-based company that has refined and marketed around the world a weigh-in-motion (WIM) scale designed in the 1970s by a group of transportation engineers at the University of Saskatchewan. The automatic scale, developed under the direction of Professor Art Bergan, could capture key information about vehicles passing over computer-assisted scales without requiring the vehicle to stop. In fact, the technology was accurate at obtaining weights for vehicles traveling at speeds up to 112 km/hour with axle weights of up to 50,000 pounds each. Bergan went on to establish IRD, a Saskatoon firm of which his son Terry is now president and which specializes in supplying products and systems to the global Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) industry. Private corporations, transportation agencies, and highway authorities around the world use IRD's products and advanced systems to manage and protect their highway infrastructures. Integrated with a number of other communications and data collection technologies, IRD's WIM systems help to reduce costs significantly for commercial vehicle operators, while extending the life of highways and improving roadway efficiency and safety.
Joe Ralko