Taiwan and Japan Collaborate to Climb the Peak of Pavement Engineering
Dr. Jou Jing-Yang , President of National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan, and Mr. Manabu Obata, Executive President and President of Nichireki Co., Ltd. In Japan, jointly signed the “Fuji-Yushan Peak-Conquering International Collaboration Project” on Nov. 15. Both parties will collaborate to develop a new generation of intelligent road testing car that is named “Fu-Yu Peak Conqueror No. 1,” hoping to optimize the pavement maintenance, improve the quality of road construction. This technology will be based in Taiwan and introduced to Southeast Asia, and then to the whole world.
The President of NCU, Dr. Jou, indicated that Taiwan transformed itself from a developing country to a developed one in past decades because the government spared no effort in promoting public construction, including the road widening of National Highway No. 1, the construction of National Highway No. 3, the connection of National Highway No. 5, the other six highways that have been open to traffic, the construction of expressways, and the widening of provincial roads. The total length of roads in Taiwan is nearly 43,365 km. How to make the most of the limited budget to improve the efficiency of road maintenance is a crucial issue for every related government institute.
Thanks to the NCU team led by Professor Lin Jyh-Dong and Associate Professor Chen Shih-Huang from the Department of Civil Engineering; they introduced the Automatic Road Analyzer (ARAN) in 2000 and thus activated the measurement and applications of road testing technologies applied by academic and government institutes in Taiwan. After years of endeavors, the NCU team has participated in many research projects or system development of government institutes and successfully developed many intelligent road testing cars and the management system of pavement, which were all made in Taiwan, placing NCU in the leading position.
In order to improve the status of this grand idea, NCU and Nichireki Co., Ltd. began to collaborate in the development of technologies. After five years of academic and experiential exchanges, both parties finally could conclude an official contract. NCU hopes to utilize Nichireki’s innovative technologies and experiences accumulated for over 70 years, and combine them with the academic reservoir of the Department of Civil Engineering at NCU, to elevate both parties’ academic and industrial achievements and introduce the results to the international society.
Both parties collaborate to develop a new generation of intelligent road testing car, named “Fu-Yu Peak Conqueror No. 1,” hoping to optimize the pavement maintenance and improve the quality of road construction.