Transurban awards funding for R&D for safer Australian roads

Transurban has awarded US$80,000 (AU$100,000) grants to three pioneering research and development projects targeting safer and smarter Australian roads in the latest round of its Innovation Grants Program. Transurban CEO Scott Charlton said each of the successful research projects would trial local Australian technologies to address known safety or efficiency challenges affecting our nation’s busiest motorways.
August 4, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

600 Transurban has awarded US$80,000 (AU$100,000) grants to three pioneering research and development projects targeting safer and smarter Australian roads in the latest round of its Innovation Grants Program.

Transurban CEO Scott Charlton said each of the successful research projects would trial local Australian technologies to address known safety or efficiency challenges affecting our nation’s busiest motorways.

The successful 2017 Transurban Innovation Grant recipients and research projects are:
University of Melbourne for research into a speed sensor with LED lights, which, once attached to the road surface could provide real-time customised signals encouraging speeding drivers to slow down.

Imagine IM for a trial of a pressure sensor made from graphene that, when constructed into the motorway surface, would enable a ‘smarter’ road capable of reporting on traffic density, weight, volume and road surface condition.

Deakin University for the development of a high-energy absorbing overlay made of recycled plastic and textile fibres to cover roadside wire rope barriers, with the aim of reducing injury severity in crashes involving motorcyclists.

“This year’s recipients are researching new materials and technology that could one day benefit the transport sector and community as a whole, with potential applications far broader than our own road networks,” said Charlton.

The Transurban Innovation Grants Program is aligned to the company’s 'Think Long Term' sustainability program. Grants of up to $100,000 are available to support ideas requiring further research and investigation to determine their feasibility and application to real world challenges facing transport infrastructure.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • UTMC ANPR communications protocol aids traffic management
    January 30, 2012
    Telematics Technology's Peter Billington describes the effort to give English local authorities and police forces a UTMC ANPR open communication protocol. The story of the impact of communication protocols on the development and utilisation of intelligent equipment is a familiar one both inside and outside the ITS industry. At the outset, a company pioneering its latest technology invariably develops a proprietary protocol. This enables the company's products to talk to the customer systems which need to a
    Read More
  • TTF confirms traffic signal funding recipients
    August 25, 2021
    TTF found traffic signals with faulty detectors and equipment 
    Read More
  • ITS Australia call for entries for National ITS Awards
    August 14, 2012
    ITS Australia has issued a call for entries for its annual National ITS Awards competition in three categories - ITS Excellence Award, Young Professional Encouragement Award, and Max Lay Life Time Achievement Award. The ITS Excellence Award is given for projects responding to one or more of the themes safety, mobility and/or environment. Within those themes, entries will be judged on how innovative, well developed, sustainable, transferable and interoperable the project is, its environmental effectiveness,
    Read More
  • Four expansions added to Virginia’s Smart Road to test AVs in urban, rural and residential environments
    November 27, 2017
    The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDoT) has unveiled four expansions to the Virginia Smart Road to accelerate advanced-vehicle testing and explore how automated and autonomous vehicles (AVs) will function on U.S. roadways including edge-and-corner environments. Two new facilities have opened for testing: The Surface Street Expansion, an urban test bed, and the Live Roadway Connector, which connects the Smart road to the U.S. Route 460-Business,
    Read More

Highlighted Content