Montgomery Media - Fitzpatrick gets look at Franconia company's new GPS-guided system touted as saving lives, money on roadways

News Article

By Bob Keeler

Most people probably don't even think about the lines on the roads they're driving, but those lines are an important part of helping people get around safely.

"It's got to make you feel good that what you do every day saves lives on the roads," U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-8, said as he toured pavement marking contractor Guidemark and the new LimnTech Scientific, a Guidemark offshoot, in Franconia May 2.

Statistics show there was a decrease in traffic fatalities after federal spending for safety measures such as lines and signs on roadways increased, Douglas Dolinar, Guidemark's general manager and LimnTech's president, said.

Each $1 million of the safety improvements saves $42 million of societal costs, including medical and other bills, he said.

After outgrowing other previous locations in the area, Guidemark moved into its current building on Hagey Road three years ago, Nancy Dolinar, Guidemark's president, said.

"We started out doing parking lots on the weekends in 1980," she said, "and now we're at 67 employees."

Along with lines, the company provides other pavement markings such as rumble strips, she said. Most of its work is in eastern Pennsylvania.

LimnTech's role comes in when it's time to replace existing pavement markings.

"It came about through a need to make work for our people safer," Douglas Dolinar said.

To replace the lines, workers had to first go out onto the roadway, usually in the dark of night, and document where the lines were located, he said.

"If you can imagine at night standing in the middle of the road with traffic going by," Douglas Dolinar said.

"Extremely dangerous," he said. "The whole idea is to try to save our people from getting hit out on the road."

A patented new system developed by LimnTech uses GPS in a vehicle driven by a company employee to map out the existing road markings.

"All the driver has to do is get near the line and then the machine takes over," Douglas Dolinar said. "No people on the road anymore."

Along with providing more safety, the system will decrease labor and other costs, an animated demonstration at LimnTech.com says.

The system also saves on costs through its quality control features that help determine which parts of the existing lines have to be replaced and which don't, William Haller, LimnTech's vice president of engineering, said.

"They don't have to re-stripe miles of roadways. They can just re-paint the stripes that need to be rehabilitated and reflective," he said.

The new LimnTech LTS-100 recently won a 2013 Innovation Award from the American Traffic Safety Services Association, Haller said.

LimnTech recently hired two new employees to join Haller and Douglas Dolinar and expects to add to that number next year when it starts production of the system, the company officials said.

"I'll be looking for it out on the road," Fitzpatrick said.

There has been interest in the system from pavement marking companies around the world, including from Australia, England and Turkey, the company officials said.

Although this system is designed for road markings, there are also other ways it could be used by states and towns to keep track of other features, such as traffic signs, Douglas Dolinar said.

"They need to inventory their assets," he said. "This technology will help them do that."

The company has invested millions of dollars and wants to make sure long-term funding will continue to be available, the Dolinars said.

"This particular industry is very capital heavy," Nancy Dolinar said.

Fitzpatrick said he supports infrastructure improvements and will speak to other congressional members about the transportation safety funding.

Source