CLOSE

Specials

  • Underground Construction Solutions
  • Consulting Firms
  • Cold Storage Construction
  • Steel Building Europe
  • Construction Demolition and Recycling APAC
  • MENA
  • Safety and Compliance APAC
  • Civil Engineering
  • Air Quality
  • Commercial Concrete
  • Cladding Systems
  • Construction Equipment
  • Mechanical Electrical and Plumbing
  • Marine Construction
  • Steel Building
  • Project Management Europe
  • Roofing Systems Europe
  • Architectural Glass APAC
  • Landscaping Service
  • Construction Engineering Mena
  • MENA
  • Pre-Engineered Building
  • Modular Construction Canada
  • Construction Demolition Canada
  • CANADA
  • Modular Construction APAC
  • Construction Marketing
  • Startups APAC
  • LATAM
  • Construction Latam
  • Construction Staffing
  • Roofing Systems APAC
  • Road Construction
  • Precast Concrete
  • Fencing
  • Equipment Rental Services
  • Others
  • Modular Construction Europe
  • Plumbing System
  • Door Systems
  • Construction Tech
  • Steel Building Apac
  • Building Information Modeling
  • Safety and Compliance
  • HVAC
  • Construction Demolition and Recycling Europe
  • Construction and Bid Estimation
  • Green Building Solutions
  • Interior Design
  • Dry Construction
  • Roofing Tech
  • Construction Demolition and Recycling
  • Flooring Tech
  • Construction Demolition
  • Flooring System
  • Waterproofing APAC
  • Wall Systems
  • Safety and Compliance Europe
  • Roofing Systems
  • Construction Executive Search
  • Construction Engineering
  • Bridge Construction
  • Construction Forensic Services
  • MODULAR CONSTRUCTION
  • Elevators and Escalators
  • Architectural Glass
  • Construction Middle East
  • Europe
  • APAC
  • Roofing System APAC
Skip to: Curated Story Group 1
constructionbusinessreview
US
EUROPE
APAC
    • US
    • EUROPE
    • APAC
  • Home
  • Contributors
  • News
  • Conferences
  • Newsletter
  • Magazine
  • About

Thank you for Subscribing to Construction Business Review Weekly Brief

×
#

Construction Business Review Weekly Brief

Be first to read the latest tech news, Industry Leader's Insights, and CIO interviews of medium and large enterprises exclusively from Construction Business Review

Subscribe

loading
  • Home
  • Contributers

Recommended Insights

Recent Technological Advancements In The...

Harry Ibbs, Architect ARB Director, Design...

How the Technological Evolution is...

May Winfield, Head of Commercial & Legal:...

Seizing Digital Opportunities to Increase...

Eric Wilson, Vice President, Turner and...

Industrializing the Construction Process

Wolf Mangelsdorf, Partner, Buro Happold

Innovation Opportunities in Construction

Jake Pepper, Vice President of Integrated...

AI has Potential but is Not Yet a Reality...

Matthew Ohlman, CTO, Shadow Ventures

Accelerated Bridge Construction Techniques...

Sevak Demirdjian, Vice President

3D Printing Reforming Construction Industry

Ron Klyn, CIO, Universal Forest Products

Recent Technological Advancements In The...

Harry Ibbs, Architect ARB Director, Design...

How the Technological Evolution is...

May Winfield, Head of Commercial & Legal:...

Seizing Digital Opportunities to Increase...

Eric Wilson, Vice President, Turner and...

Industrializing the Construction Process

Wolf Mangelsdorf, Partner, Buro Happold

Innovation Opportunities in Construction

Jake Pepper, Vice President of Integrated...

AI has Potential but is Not Yet a Reality...

Matthew Ohlman, CTO, Shadow Ventures

Accelerated Bridge Construction Techniques...

Sevak Demirdjian, Vice President

3D Printing Reforming Construction Industry

Ron Klyn, CIO, Universal Forest Products

Smarter Transportation Solutions Can Start Today

Nate Loewentheil, Senior Associate, Camber Creek
Tweet

Over the next few decades, no part of urban living will change more dramatically than transportation. Self-driving cars, robotic delivery, and coordinated citywide traffic management will revolutionize how and when people travel. But leaders in the public and private sector do not need to wait for these grand solutions to act. The rapid decline in the price of digital sensors, nearly universal wireless connectivity, cloud com­puting, and gains in both the data and material sciences have paved the way for innovations that can meaningfully reduce traffic and congestion, improve safety, and cut costs right now. Urban designers, developers, carmakers, technology companies, and engineers should start investing in these available ‘Smart City’ technologies to create smarter, safer streets and neighborhoods.


Take potholes, for example, the great bane of urban commuters, cyclists, and city transportation officials. Potholes are not just annoying, they are expensive. The poor condition of streets – of which potholes are only a part - costs U.S. motorists $67 billion every year. Until now, potholes have been essentially impossible to manage: they form quickly, continuously, and are difficult to survey. Now for the first-time potential solutions are emerging that bring together citizens, engineers, chemists, and city governments.


To fix a pothole, you first have to find it. In Boston, the city government worked with IDEO and Connected Bits to launch an app that motorists could download that would automatically generate a location report when the car (and the phone in the car) hit a pothole. The experiment found that the biggest challenge was actually sunken manholes and the city replaced the worst 1,250 offenders.


Even better is to stop potholes before they start. Potholes typically form when water seeps into asphalt, freezes and expands, opening up larger cracks, which attract more water. Erik Schlangen, a materials scientist at Delft University, is trying to intervene in the process by mixing asphalt with steel fibers that, when magnetized, can re-form and seal over cracks, extending asphalt’s useful life and reducing costs. The government in the Netherlands is in year seven of piloting the new technology on a dozen roads. Professor Henk Jonkers, also of Delft University, is exploring mixing bacteria in tiny capsules into concrete. When water seeps in, the capsules crack and the bacteria produce limestone—which in turns ‘heals’ the cracks. These new technologies are calling out for U.S. experimentation.


Another priority for cities is traffic management. One way that cities can start tackling congestion is through connected intersections. Connected intersections use cameras or sensors to measure traffic and pedestrian flow, and react in real time to speed up the movement of vehicles, while protecting people on foot. Working with the City of Detroit, the company Miovision has installed connected intersection technology along a two-mile stretch of downtown Larned Street.


The cameras and software extend green signals for cyclists who might not make it through an intersection in time, warn Waze users when pedestrians are crossing, and in time will be able to prioritize signals for buses and freight-hauling trucks.


For these new technologies to succeed, every actor in the transportation sector will need to commit to experimentation, collaboration, and innovation


Another technology that is now commercially available is “smart pavement.” The company Integrated Roadways weaves sensors into prefabricated concrete segments. The segments can provide data on pressure and traffic behavior and can route data to and from cars. Based on the movement of cars across the road, smart pavement can detect crashes and immediately alert emergency responders. The pavement can also help engineers understand how and why cars crash in particular areas. In the longer-term, the smart pavement could communicate with autonomous vehicles providing real-time information on new traffic patterns, road conditions, potholes, or accidents around curves or over hills. It might even serve as part of the cellular communication infrastructure as data requirements for autonomous cars increase. Smart pavement advocates suggest a government could eventually sell the data on traffic to car manufacturers or advertisers, recouping the costs of the initial investment. In spring 2018, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced the first pilot of smart pavement in the U.S. with a half-mile stretch along U.S. Highway 285, south of Denver.


Public agencies, construction firms, technology and auto companies, and designers around the U.S. are also piloting connected vehicles and autonomous vehicles, often with the support of the federal government. In Tampa, Florida, for instance, the regional transportation authority partnered with HNTB and Siemens to install connected vehicle technology in buses, streetcars and hundreds of privately owned vehicles. The technology alerts drivers to emergency braking, end of ramp deceleration, unusual intersection movement, and other traffic patterns that might result in an accident. Meanwhile, Toledo, Ohio will be deploying fully autonomous electric buses around its downtown.


For these new technologies to succeed, every actor in the transportation sector will need to commit to experimentation, collaboration, and innovation. No single new approach or design will magically address the safety and congestion challenges facing American streets, but together they can start to chip away at the problem, saving lives, time and money.


Weekly Brief

loading
Top 10 Underground Construction Services Companies - 2022
> <
  • Underground Construction Solutions 2023

    Top Vendors

    Current Issue
  • Underground Construction Solutions 2021

    Top Vendors

    Current Issue
  • Underground Construction Solutions 2020

    Top Vendors

    Current Issue

Read Also

A modular solution to the housing crisis

Katrina Knight, Head of Design and Estimating at Fleetwood
A modular solution to the housing crisis

Why Sustainable Stormwater Management Matters

Anna Fu, Vice President of Construction, SIMCO Engineering
Why Sustainable Stormwater Management Matters

Modular Construction and automation in construction

Mohamad Yasser Baaj, CEO, B3G Engineering Services
Modular Construction and automation in construction

The Ticket to Super-Convenient Travelling

Nadeem Shakir, Technical Director and Head of Transport Planning, Aurecon
The Ticket to Super-Convenient Travelling
The Vital Role of Suppliers in Digital Design and Construction-A Case for Value Engineering

The Vital Role of Suppliers in Digital Design and Construction-A Case for Value Engineering

Tassilo Deinzer, Member of the Executive Board, Hilti Group
Minimizing Cooling System Corrosion

Minimizing Cooling System Corrosion

Brad Buecker, Senior Technical Publicist, ChemTreat

Utility Infrastructure to Improve Quality of Life

Bob Williams, Senior Director Information Technology, ElectriCom
Utility Infrastructure to Improve Quality of Life

Recent Technological Advancements In The Construction Industry

Harry Ibbs, Architect ARB Director, Design Technology Studio, Europe, Gensler
Recent Technological Advancements In The Construction Industry
Loading...

Copyright © 2023 Construction Business Review . All rights reserved. |  Subscribe follow on linkedin

This content is copyright protected

However, if you would like to share the information in this article, you may use the link below:

https://underground-construction-solutions.constructionbusinessreview.com/cxoinsight/smarter-transportation-solutions-can-start-today-nwid-86.html

We use cookies on this website to enhance your user experience. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies. More info

I agree