Industries
P4 designs and manufactures innovative products for all types of civil engineering systems including traffic sign and signal supports, stormwater management infrastructure, and construction. P4’s products are also used by the insurance industry and homeowners.
Stormwater Management
Whether you’re designing or managing permeable pavement surfaces, stormwater storage cisterns, blue roof or green roof systems, constructed wetlands, permeable reactive barriers, bioremediation systems – or a mixture of these stormwater best management practices; long-term performance, and maintenance are major concerns.
P4’s INFIL-Tracker provides confidence that your permeable pavement surface performs as intended; confidence that your maintenance interventions are appropriately timed, effective, and not wasteful of fiscal, equipment and human resources; and confidence that you have invested effectively in pursuit of TMDL compliance.
P4’s LIQUA-Level provides confidence that your stormwater storage cisterns are performing as intended and confidence that you have invested effectively in pursuit of TMDL compliance.
P4’s stormwater management products can potentially save millions of dollars in unnecessary construction of stormwater management infrastructure by providing data-driven TMDL compliance.
Traffic Signs and Signal Supports
Today’s municipal and suburban intersections are seeing increasingly larger pole dimensions, which are not only increasing costs, but are also causing visual overload in heavily trafficked areas. We call it “pole pollution.” Furthermore, lead times for fabrication of these systems can approach one year.
P4’s MonoCast is an all new, modular signal and sign support system made with cast steel components. P4’s MonoCast system does not require field inspections because it includes autonomous monitoring using P4’s ShakeSense technology, state-of-the-art analysis/design, state-of-the-art materials and fabrication, and assembly procedures that are not those of traditional civil engineering systems – MonoCast is simply better engineered. P4’s MonoCast system is faster to manufacture and faster to erect in the field.
P4’s MonoCast system eliminates millions of dollars spent annually on inspection of traffic sign and signal supports; reduces the fabrication lead time from nearly a year down to 3-4 months; eliminates the need for conducting, and documenting pretension in connecting bolts; and significantly reduces the time necessary for field erection. The MonoCast system provides significant owner return on investment.
Construction
With the continued boom in road construction, institutional construction, and commercial development new construction often occurs in increasingly condensed spaces. Older structures are demolished to make way for more modern, often higher, buildings which need deep foundations. Many times, the activities can cause ground movements and shaking that can cause damage to surrounding infrastructure and can cause annoying vibrations to people that live and/or work in buildings near construction sites. P4’s ShakeSense can be used to measure the magnitude of ground motions which can help determine when they become a nuisance or even damaging. The P4 ShakeSense system combines a low-cost, small form factor device with edge computing capability and wireless cloud connectivity to measure and assess the effects of vibrations from construction as well as many other sources of vibration (e.g. mining). In fact, ShakeSense can be used by private homeowner’s concerned about vibrations damaging their property.
Environmental conditions (e.g. rainfall) at local construction sites are often assessed using the nearest weather monitoring station via smartphone apps. However, weather conditions at construction sites can be significantly different than those at the monitoring stations. Therefore, it can be very difficult to effectively manage construction activities at sites like pouring concrete or conducting earthwork without accurate weather information. Furthermore, work stoppages are often based upon monitoring station data that is not reflective of weather at a local construction site. This can lead to contractual losses for contractors due to work stoppages.
P4’s Rain mX is a stand-alone (can be portable) autonomous weather monitoring system. No external power source is required. Rain mX measures rainfall, barometric pressure, relative humidity, and temperature. It can be used as part of a weather monitoring network for a construction site, or it can be used with multiple Rain-mX devices to make up a weather monitoring network. Rain-mX can tell you what happened at your site during the overnight hours so that you can plan the next construction day’s construction activity. It can also be used to document local weather at a site to justify work stoppages giving clients documentation supporting work stoppages and added expenses resulting from weather conditions at a site.
Insurance
Each stage of an infrastructure project – from planning and design through construction, operation, maintenance – involves different risks. Our products are designed to provide integral knowledge to owners, investors and insurers so that decisions based on maintenance, repair and risk can be properly evaluated and data-driven.
ShakeSense can be used independently to monitor vibrations on or near structures, construction sites or even private residences. It also can be used in conjunction with our MonoCast product to facilitate remote monitoring of wind-induced vibrations of traffic signal and sign support structures. This results in inspectors out of live traffic and the motoring public free from traffic diversions. Both of these reduce workplace- and traffic-related accidents.
LIQUA-Level and INFIL-Tracker provide detailed data on the performance of stormwater assets to create design innovation in stormwater infrastructure and prevent flooding.
And More!
Have an idea for use of our products in another capacity? We’d love to talk to anyone with an innovative idea for our innovative products for civil engineering applications.
“We think your sanitary sewer should be able to tell you where you have leaks, your bridge should be able to tell you when it has experienced damage, your building – an excessive vibration, and your porous pavement – it should be able to tell you when it needs to be maintained. It’s all possible. Right now.”