Published on 11/15/2016 | Use Cases
We have all been stuck in traffic because the vehicles around us stopped to stare at a road-side accident. There is a term dedicated to this activity now- rubbernecking. We don’t want to look at the carnage, but we somehow can’t seem to turn away. There is something about a morbid collision that draws us in. Staring at the wreck, we wonder if something similar could ever happen to us. The answer is yes. You never think it will happen to you until it does. The road accident statistics in India are so high that you could easily go from being an onlooker to being the one in the crash. Shockingly, there is one death every four minutes due to a road accident in India. Needless to say, it is imperative that something is done about the maintenance of our highways. For this reason, our government has decided to adopt IoT technologies to improve road safety.
Nitin Gadkari, the Indian Union Minister for Road Transport, Highway, and Shipping, has resolved to expand our national highway network, whilst bringing down the number of accidents. “I decided to increase the national highways to 2 lakh km and today it is 1.5 lakh km,” the minister said this May, while also promising to “take steps to bring down accidents by half at least.” INR 6 lakh crore have also been budgeted for IT tools to monitor 900 highway projects. IT applications identified are mostly in the area of e-tolling and the launch of a portal for making cement and steel available.
There have been many significant advancements in the field of technology, related to cars, airplanes, trucks and traffic systems. However, advancements in the field of road/highway construction have been minimal and have not kept pace with the rapid innovation in vehicles. Future cars that run on renewable energy would require solar panels to be embedded in the roads. Will the new highways that are about to get constructed address the future needs of transport? Present infrastructure and roadway technology is out-dated and requires innovations to support new age cars and latest traffic and navigation systems. Construction of highways should be planned, taking the long-term perspective into consideration. Lower maintenance cost, changing weather patterns, and the future needs of transportation are some of the aspects on which a plan should be formulated. While self-driven cars are being fitted with sensors to enable navigation and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, investments also need to be made for embedding sensors in highways and bridges and in establishing data centres.
Investments in IT applications that monitor highway projects usually focus on decision-making post the event. The government should leverage data and IOT technology for prevention of accidents, making decisions in real-time, and should also reduce the infrastructure maintenance costs and the use of spurious materials. The Indian Union Ministry has taken a historical decision and moved a Cabinet note to provide 1% of the total cost of construction to road safety. This includes providing standby ambulances on highways. To achieve the target of bringing down accidents by half, preventative measures are required. Highway safety can be ensured by using sensors that give out real-time alerts about potential damage to roads.
Presently, funding for infrastructure projects, using either the build-operate-transfer model or hybrid annuity model, is mostly driven by the initial design/construction cost. Usually, subsequent repair and maintenance are less emphasized. Long term maintenance costs should be an increasing concern as there is an ever-growing body of evidence that suggests that in the future there will be an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Changes in temperature, more intense storm activity, and sea level rises may have important implications for transport infrastructure design, and the operation and maintenance of roads. This could increase the risk of disruptions, damage, and failure of transportation systems.
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Central Data Hub for Highway Infrastructure:
Data is a goldmine for the highway program provided it is leveraged by the government to achieve its objectives of preventing accidents and reducing maintenance costs. Handling large amounts of data for nationwide highways requires a data centre and investment in the right skill set. A data center with a facility of storing large quantities of data (petabytes), processing data in real time, providing reporting and analytics capabilities, IOT platforms to remotely manage the sensors are some of the key features to be considered. An architecture of the data center that integrates with other data centers is illustrated in the following image.
Traffic volume data, accident data, e-toll data, spatial data, land registry data, civil engineering data, satellite data, social media data, advanced video’s and smart camera’s placed on highways, and data from smart sensors embedded in roads are the various sources of data that can be leveraged.
Integrated Data Hubs:
Communication of the Nationwide data hubs with other data hubs (city, police and hospitals data hubs) will pave the way for truly integrated and intermodal transport solutions. So, for example, if there is a red alert on a specific section of a highway, it needs to be communicated in real time to the police, ambulance stations, toll gates and vehicles so that the required actions can be taken immediately. The police can divert the traffic and passengers heading in that direction and provide warnings through the car navigation systems or smart devices and guide them to an alternative route.
Preventative Maintenance of Highways and Bridges:
Data mining techniques and analytic models should be developed to predict the probability of a bridge or highway being deficient, given the characteristics of the bridge. This kind of analysis will help determine all the parameters that are significant to the infrastructure deterioration and what kinds of highways or bridges are more likely to get damaged. 2 Parameters that contribute to the degradation of highways, when combined with the data on changing weather patterns, can help to lay the guidelines for future road structures required for different geographical locations. The construction companies can then be given these standards to follow.
Reduction of Construction Costs:
Big data analysis can also be used to reduce construction costs and expedite the construction activity. In the UK, when a big construction project starts there needs to be an archaeological inquiry to ensure that historic sites are not destroyed leading to substantial costs for a construction company. Democrata, an Oxford-based start-up, has developed a way to predict the risk of such delays.
It has mapped the entire UK using a 3D geo-visionary programme and as also added a programme of predictive algorithms to identify where historical artefacts might still be found. 3 A similar concept can be used to identify risks as part of planning for new highways or railway tracks. Land acquisitions for highways can also be decided based on this analysis.
Embed Resilient Smart Sensors in Roads and Bridges During Construction and Repair:
Advance IoT sensors that can withstand tough environmental conditions can determine the structural status of roads, bridges, and tunnels on an on-going basis and report back to central data hub in real-time. Any change in road structures will automatically alert engineers to the developing faults. The IoT sensors can also monitor the composition of materials used on the roads leading to avoidance of low-grade materials. Using smart sensors, steel structures, such as bridges can be automatically monitored. This continuous real-time inspection method can prevent structural failures such as a bridge collapse and expensive replacements and repairs. This is illustrated in the image below.
- Sensors that monitor the environment and weather conditions are also necessary so that predictions can be made for potential damages caused by heat, rainfall, and other extreme climatic conditions. For example, sensors from Libelium that measure rainfall, wind speed, temperature and wind direction can help to alert drivers to take necessary precautions. Liquid sensors from Libelium that identify slippage points on the roads caused by excessive rainfall and flooding can prevent accidents. Alerts on hazardous Icy roads can be given using humidity and ice sensors. Structural cracks can be monitored using Linear Replacement Sensors and Vibration Sensors.
- Sensors for Black Spots – The ministry has identified 786 blackspots across the country and aims to fix these through road engineering. Installation of smart sensors on the black spots can monitor these accident prone areas in real-time and forewarn drivers to slow down by communicating with their car sensors. Also, all the black spots should be mapped in Google maps and GPS, so the drivers get alerts when they approach these accident prone areas.
- Sensors to Monitor Driving Behaviour – Sensor-based solutions can be installed in cars and on mobile phones to monitor the behavior of the vehicle driver for reckless or rash driving. ERM Advanced Telematics has developed an ‘e-safe’ solution that can be installed in the vehicles and encourage safe driving.
The health of sensors that are installed can be monitored remotely via dashboard in the central data hubs.
Integration With Other IT Initiatives to Monitor Projects :
Initiatives such as e-toll can be rolled into the big data and IoT initiative. RFID tags on each vehicle or cards similar to ATM cards could be used to register and track vehicles. The data captured while registering vehicles for collection of toll along with the real-time data of the vehicle movement on the highway can be consolidated and analysed in the data hub. This will not only help to monitor toll collections but also, at the time of an accident or a natural calamity e.g. landslide, vehicles approaching can be warned in real-time to divert and use the first exit routes on the highway.
Needless to mention, traffic cameras at intersections and along highways can stop drivers from speeding and acting aggressively. Lane discipline of trucks and cars can also be maintained using these cameras.
Given the dearth of talent in data sciences and big data skills, a combination of hiring big data technology professionals and cross training of civil engineers & traffic experts will be crucial to the success of these data hubs. Collaboration with universities/start-ups and sponsoring of research in the area of construction materials and nanotechnology for infrastructure is an excellent way of bringing innovations into the mainstream. This is another source for fostering the right skill development that is required for the data hubs.
Leverage Learning From the World Highway Community:
Collaboration on highway research projects with the international community and accessing results of these research projects will enhance the effectiveness of the proposed data centers.
For example, the Turner–Fairbank Highway Research Center, sponsored by the US Department of Transportation, provides Federal Highway Administration and the world highway community with research and development related to new highway technologies. It stores data and conducts various research programs related to highway safety, bridge performance, and improved highway design.
Another example shown in the following image is the ‘Solar Roadways Project’, a brainchild of Scott and Julie Brusaw. It aims to replace standard asphalt roads, parking spaces, pavements, and bike paths with advanced solar panels that generate clean and renewable power. The panels will also contain LED lighting, heating elements to melt snow, inductive charging capability for electric vehicles while driving, and even some storm water management abilities. The ministry should participate in this project, so the modalities of implementation are piloted before bringing it into the mainstream of construction.
The government can also explore avenues for monetizing the processed data to construction companies, navigation companies (GPS/Google maps), insurance companies, logistic companies, and car and truck manufacturing companies.
Security & Privacy
Security of these data hubs is a key feature that should be considered while creating them. Given that the data is related to roads, construction sites and safety, and not related to individuals, the privacy of individuals should remain intact. However, utmost security relating to the location of sensors and other sensitive information should be maintained.
Conclusion
As part of the IT budget for monitoring 900 highway projects, investment for installing sensors/traffic cameras across highways and establishing data hubs should also be planned for. This investment has tremendous benefits resulting in reducing infrastructure operations costs and prevention of accidents. The government can prioritize its spending on road maintenance, predict damages to roads, provide disaster warnings, avoid accidents, provide real-time accident alerts, improve safety, monitor the quality of roads and contractors during and after construction, and avoid traffic jams on highways. These are some of the key factors that will help the Ministry of Road Transport, Highways, and Shipping to achieve the objective of reducing accidents by at least half and reduce long-term maintenance cost.
We can educate people to use cars with air bags. We can tell them that the one day they don’t wear their helmet can be the one day that they need it the most. We can make them realize how reckless drinking and driving is. However, we need a two-pronged approach to road safety, which is why we must ensure that we have re-engineered roads and better road geometry. After all, we cannot ask our citizens to be responsible and our government to not be.
References:
1. Interactive Future Of Highways
2. Using Data Analytics To Categorize Steel Bridge Deterioration
3. Big Data To Cut Delays on Construction Sites
4. Turner–Fairbank Highway Research Center Research and Development Data Centers/Data Initiatives
