It’s no secret that the infrastructure in the U.S. get worse with each passing year, due to the fact that transportation spending has been decreasing for decades, and because the number of vehicles adding extra load on roads has been increasing constantly. Lately, though, the government has been saying that infrastructure has become its top priority, with President Obama introducing a $300 billion transportation plan, to help fix hundreds of thousands of roads and rail lines and build new highways and bridges. While this plan is certainly a step in the right direction for improving the country’s infrastructure, its success will depend on how the money will be spent, since so far, all previous governments have been putting a lot of money into concrete and asphalt roads and steel bridges, that have a limited life cycle and come with high maintenance costs.
That’s why there is a debate over what the future of America’s roads should look like, with many transportation experts proposing the idea of “smart roads” and “smart grids”, that can communicate with vehicles, contributing to a smoother traffic flow and improving traffic safety. In recent years, there have been various projects for developing advanced pavement technologies that could replace concrete and asphalt for road construction, and could help reduce accidents, as well as road maintenance costs.
Solar Roadways, a start-up from Sandpoint, Idaho, has developed a “smart highway”, that is made from numerous transparent tiles with photovoltaic cells underneath, collecting solar energy that can be stored and then converted into electricity to be used by surrounding buildings. In addition to this, there are LED lights right underneath the tempered glass, that could be used to mark traffic lanes, or convey messages and warn drivers of potential road hazards. What’s more, the solar panels will be able to melt snow and ice, as they will be heated at all times. The panels are very durable, and can sustain loads of up to 250,000 pounds. Solar Roadways was allowed to build a parking lot entirely out of solar panels, with LEDs and heating elements, to test the technology, and so far, results have been quite encouraging. In the future, the company hopes that it will develop the technology further, so that these roads are able to charge electric cars as they go.
Another project involving innovative pavement technologies is the Virginia Smart Road, which started over a decade ago, with a limited access road built in Virginia, containing two lanes and three bridges, with embedded sensors, lighting and weather system controls, LED modules, and a differential GPS station. All this technology gives the road the ability to inform drivers of road and weather conditions, warning them of snow or ice covered sections on the road ahead of them, or changing the posted speed limits depending on traffic flow, road conditions, and the number of vehicles on the road at any given time.
While these types of ideas can surely help enhance the nation’s ailing infrastructure, it will be a long time before they can be implemented into existing roads, as the technologies that are involved are pretty expensive, and the regulatory framework for “intelligent” roads that can interact with vehicles and with the electric power grid is still not in place.