Kazakhstan develops electronic road passports

Kazakhstan has started creating electronic passports for its highways. While this process was previously time-consuming, the current digitization method is automatic and significantly faster. Moreover, the modern approach is more precise and cost-effective. It involves experts from the Kazakhstan Road Research Institute using the capabilities of high-resolution digital 3D video scanning. The software enables displaying three-dimensional plans of roads and streets, indicating all pre-identified objects such as buildings, sidewalks, and road markings. The collected data is then used to generate essential reports for road-operating organizations. It is worth noting that there is high demand for electronic passportization services in the country. The digitization work is currently underway in the cities of Astana and Aktobe and are scheduled to expand to other regions of Kazakhstan next year.

“Overall, passportization holds socio-economic importance. Take, for example, a city in the northern part of the country, with the onset of winter, challenges arise. The snow, not promptly cleared, is pushed to the roadside. In spring, melting snow leads to street flooding, and water accumulation damages the asphalt, rendering it in disrepair. So, electronic passportization enables online monitoring of road conditions, facilitating timely repairs,” said Daniyar Koshimkhanov, Head of Road Diagnostics Department of the Kazakhstan Road Research Institute.

“The Aktobe region governor’s office was one of the first in the country to launch a comprehensive digitization and passportization for local roads. As part of the fieldwork, a video bank of the region's road network, spanning 1,264 kilometers, has been developed and inspections of bridge constructions and culverts have been conducted. Experts from the Kazakhstan Road Research Institute are currently analyzing defects and technical and operational characteristics obtained during the digitization process, as well as assessing compliance of key parameters and characteristics of the roads with regulatory requirements. Following the comprehensive data collection and analysis, specialists will integrate information about the roads of the Aktobe region into a unified database for road network management,” said Aibek Kaiyer, Head of Passenger Transport and Highway Department of the Aktobe Region.