Intelligent pavement technology uses sensors and fiber optic data to send accident alerts

According to foreign media reports, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is working on installing smart pavement technology on the highway to send notifications to rescuers when the vehicle hits the roadside.

This high-tech pavement can be installed in prefabricated modular slabs with a built-in light-sensing cable mesh network that allows the roadway to “perceive” the vehicle. The interconnected road can also be expanded to include satellites, sensors and data storage devices. Currently, each lane is equipped with 2000 expansion ports/mile.

In March 2018, Colorado released the five-year technology demonstration project, involving an amount of $2.77 million. The deployment road was selected at the end of a straight road section of the US Highway 285, where the corners were mostly Panshan Road. Many motorcyclists have accidents on this section, but given the proximity of their area to the countryside, it is rare to report accidents in a timely manner.

Sensors in the intelligent road surface can transmit data to the server, and use an algorithm to determine whether there is an accident in the road section. The Integrated Roadways system will upgrade alerts in the Amazon Web Services cloud, and Colorado Department of Transportation officials can view such alerts via dashboards.