Skip to main content

MoDOT ‘Road to Tomorrow’ ready to move on pilot projects

Launched in 2015, the Missouri Department of Transportation’s (MoDOT) ‘Road to Tomorrow’ initiative is ready to move on five pilot projects, according to Equipment World. MoDOT plans to utilise innovation and construction to rebuild the state’s oldest interstate highway, Interstate 90 and make the highway from Kansas City to St Louis available to private industry, entrepreneurs and innovators as a laboratory for construction of the next generation of highways. MoDOT has made a 2016 TIGER Grant request
June 17, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Launched in 2015, the 1773 Missouri Department of Transportation’s (MoDOT) ‘Road to Tomorrow’ initiative is ready to move on five pilot projects, according to Equipment World.

MoDOT plans to utilise innovation and construction to rebuild the state’s oldest interstate highway, Interstate 90 and make the highway from Kansas City to St Louis available to private industry, entrepreneurs and innovators as a laboratory for construction of the next generation of highways.

MoDOT has made a 2016 TIGER Grant request that would fund a ‘smart pavement’ project in the Kansas City region, along with one for a Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives grant that would examine new sustainable funding sources.

It also hopes to move forward with a pilot project to test the truck platooning concept on Missouri highways, where wireless connectivity between commercial trucks enables the second truck to follow at a close distance for better fuel economy and enhanced safety.

A request for proposals (RFP) has been issued for an Internet of Things (IoT) broker, who would respond to the demand for devices/networks on the state’s right of way to enable the use of connecting devices and vehicles using electronic sensors and the Internet.

MoDOT has also issued an RFP for a pilot project to install ‘smart pavement’ for testing at a location to be determined. This would feature sensors and systems that enable vehicle-to-infrastructure and infrastructure-to-vehicle connected vehicle technologies and services and provide data to MoDOT, motor carriers and other commercial fleet operators and private drivers on a subscription basis to enable sustainable, self-funded infrastructure assets for public owners.

The Department also plans a Solar Roadways Pilot Project, where solar panels will be installed on sidewalks to test their potential for generating heat to melt snow and for generation of electricity for other purposes.

Related Content

  • Data handling important for autonomous vehicles
    December 8, 2016
    Data handling is becoming an ever-greater part of transportation and never more so than with autonomous vehicles, as Andrew Bardin Williams hears from some big names.
  • ChargeWheel sparks mobile EV charging in San Francisco
    April 8, 2019
    ChargeWheel has secured $1 million in funding to launch a mobile electric vehicle (EV) charging network in the San Francisco Bay Area. The network will be based on ChargeWheel’s mobile Energy Trailers, which don’t require a connection to the grid, and can therefore operate in any car park. The company says they offer a combined solar-powered generation and energy storage solution, and plans to deploy 100 in the Bay Area by the end of 2019. The units can simultaneously charge four EVs or up to 400 electric
  • US DOT proposes broader use of event data recorders
    December 10, 2012
    In an effort to help improve vehicle safety, the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a new standard that would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash. The proposed rule would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs), devices that collect specific safety related data, in all light passenger vehicles beginning in September 2014. “By understanding how drivers respond in a cras
  • The case for tolling the Interstates
    April 20, 2012
    Speaking at an event organised by the IBTTA last week to an audience of federal and state transportation officials, policy experts, financial analysts, and representatives from engineering firms, technology companies, and transportation facility operators, Ed Regan of Wilbur Smith Associates articulated a clear case for giving states flexibility to toll existing interstate highways.