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"The profiler is a very important tool for our paving operations," mentions Shively, who is also responsible for quality control for Shelly Company.

The contractor has incorporated the use of profilographs and profilers into its paving operations for nearly a decade. Shelly Company started with the California type profilograph, but it quickly upgraded to the Ames Engineering Model 6200 Lightweight Profiler to speed up the pavement profiling process. More recently, the company has been using High speed profilers, which allow profile to be measured at highway speeds.

"Our profile crew drops in, does a quick analysis and gives the foreman the information to make any paving adjustments necessary," Shively explains.

These corrections can range anywhere from changes in the way a crew is unloading trucks to adjustments in the rolling patterns. The analysis has also helped Shelly Company to uncover pre-existing conditions in the road, which allows the contractor to go back to the project's owner early on to discuss possible changes in the pavement's design. In more extreme cases, the company may even bring in a mill on the base or intermediate lift to remove high spots.

The key is that Shelly Company uses the profiler as an in-process tool. The profilers not only help give the contractor smoothness numbers for the entire pavement, the software operating the profiler allows crews to pinpoint the locations of trouble spots.