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Mobile Mapping Helps Pave the Way in Italy

Published Date
Author Trimble Geospatial

Trimble’s MX9 mobile mapping system supports paving applications for this contractor’s road maintenance work in Italy.

Watch the video to see milling with millimeter precision and read on to learn more.


The SS38 motorway between Bolzano and Merano, in the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige, is a busy, well-traveled 35-km stretch of highway that requires regular maintenance and improvement.

It is a very familiar road for Bolzano-based C9 Costruzioni, the roadway maintenance subsidiary of the Adige Bitumi Group. Recently, the firm was contracted to rebuild the surface (wear) and binder layers along a 3.5-km part of the route. To ensure speedy work with quality results, C9 Costruzioni sought to further connect its ever-improving, technology-enabled digital workflow.

“Our goal was to completely connect each facet of the work from survey to design to the milling machines,” said Alessandro Marchetti, C9 Costruzioni’s site manager.

To facilitate the connected workflow, the C9 Costruzioni survey team set up a reference network that included five Trimble® SPS930 Universal Total Stations with reference points about every 200 meters along the stretch of motorway. The SPS930’s 20 Hz update rate is ideal for real-time fine grading to millimeter accuracies.

Then the survey team, with its partner, the GEO & DOMUS Group mobile mapping company, used the Trimble MX9 mobile mapping system, a vehicle-mounted solution to capture roadway data along the entire route.

The MX9 point cloud data was then processed using Trimble Business Center and Trimble RealWorks® software. From there, the project team easily moved the data to the road design programs to create a digital model of the road surface, which was then uploaded to the Trimble PCS900 3D milling system on a Wirtgen milling machine to mill with the set precision per design to obtain an optimal final surface.

According to C9 Costruzioni , the client, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, is very satisfied with the results that can be achieved using 3D milling. For C9 Costruzioni, the all-digital survey-to-design-to-milling data workflow has raised the bar for efficient and accurate highway maintenance in the region.

Learn more: Trimble MX9 Mobile Mapping System