WSP USA was selected by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to design Minnesota’s first smart road, which would transform a major state highway west of Minneapolis into a road capable of testing and deploying numerous connected-vehicle applications.
As prime consultant, the company is responsible for providing planning, systems engineering, and technical support to MnDOT, and will develop a concept of operations for the project, prepare system requirements, and support the procurement of system design and deployment in subsequent phases.
MnDOT has selected the 9-mile Trunk Highway 55 (TH-55) corridor between downtown Minneapolis and I-494 as the initial location to deploy this technology. In addition, portions of I-394, which runs parallel to the south of TH-55, may be outfitted with connected-vehicle infrastructure to allow for additional applications. Planning will continue through the summer, and deployment of the connected corridor program is expected to start later this year.
The backbone of the Minnesota project will be the broadcast of signal, phase and timing (SPaT) information to vehicles directly from traffic signal controllers along the corridor. MnDOT will be developing the communications infrastructure and data management systems to support a range of existing and future technologies.
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Source: Traffic Technology Today
