Skip to main content

High-viz' potholes innovation

Two Milan Polytechnic students, Domenico Diego and Cristina Corradini have designed the ‘Street Safe Initiative’, comprising a brightly coloured layer of asphalt a few centimetres beneath the surface of the road, which becomes visible when the road surface breaks up, making potholes easier to see and avoid.
February 2, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Two 578 Milan Polytechnic students, Domenico Diego and Cristina Corradini have designed the ‘Street Safe Initiative’, comprising a brightly coloured layer of asphalt a few centimetres beneath the surface of the road, which becomes visible when the road surface breaks up, making potholes easier to see and avoid.

The unique design will be trialled later this year in Rho, a small town close to Milan, to determine if the project is viable and cost-effective.

“We have compared the road surface to the human skin: when we are wounded, we start to bleed,” says Diego.

“So our idea is to put a layer of yellow asphalt beneath the tarmac, which appears and creates a high chromatic contrast that is visible from a distance. This way, the potholes are signalled as they appear and road users have enough time to react safely.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • 5G or not 5G?
    April 16, 2019
    Just a few years ago, there was only one solution in terms of communications protocols for delivering vehicle connectivity. Now, road operators and vehicle manufacturers face choices – including a moral choice, perhaps. Jason Barnes looks at the current state of play There is a debate raging in the ITS world over future communications protocols. Asfinag, Austria’s national strategic road operator, has announced it will from 2020 be using ITS-G5 to support cooperative ITS (C-ITS) applications (‘First thin
  • Traffic management to the fore at Vision 2014
    December 8, 2014
    Colin Sowman reviews some of the traffic-related exhibits at the 2014 Vision Show in Stuttgart. Traffic was a major theme at this years’ Vision Show in Stuttgart and several manufacturers used the exhibition to highlight their traffic-related equipment and applications.
  • Ertico is looking east: here’s why
    March 3, 2020
    The first Central Eastern Congress on ITS is to be held in Russia in September. Jacob Bangsgaard, CEO of Ertico – ITS Europe, tells Adam Hill why the event is necessary – and what visitors can expect
  • Theoretical limits
    February 27, 2012
    I'll take a punt that a few months ago not many outside those with some form of business or economics qualification had even heard of John Maynard Keynes and his ideas on governments' interventionist role in stimulating growth and stability.