The 33 Smart Mobility Corridor has gone live after five years of planning and development for testing connected-vehicle technology.
State and local officials announced the opening of the project Wednesday at the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty – one anchor of the 35-mile stretch of state Route 33 through Marysville and Dublin. Crews have installed 432 strands of fiber-optic broadband cable in a redundant loop, plus 63 roadside units to communicate with onboard equipment on the first 200 vehicles of a planned 500.
“The tech infrastructure being deployed on the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor will help develop and advance transportation technologies that will make travel safer for everyone," Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who also heads the InnovateOhio initiative, said in a news release. "This project is another example of how we can utilize technology to improve quality of life and grow an innovative economy that will fuel the jobs of the future.”
State and local government agencies and Ohio State University teamed up to win a $5.9 million federal grant for the project in 2016. The scope has since moved away from testing autonomous trucks in favor of equipment that can send safety and traffic alerts to drivers.
Honda R&D Americas Inc., the research arm of Honda Motor Co., has deployed more than 200 connected vehicles on the corridor. Honda has extensive operations along the stretch.
“Ohio’s 33 Smart Mobility Corridor enables us to conduct real-world testing of Honda’s Safe Swarm technology, which uses vehicle-to-everything communication to help mitigate collisions, improve traffic flow, increase fuel efficiency for all road users, and prepare for higher-levels of automated driving features,” Sue Bai, chief engineer at Honda Research Institute USA Inc., said in a news release. “This initiative is helping us develop the transportation ecosystem of the future with like-minded partners."
Honda and Marysville installed roadside equipment at all 29 of its traffic signals, a project that kicked off in 2018 and now is the first citywide deployment in the nation. Another 16 connected intersections are on the corridor. Dublin is testing the technology at a multi-lane roundabout.
The public-private partnership is a model for future programs in Ohio, Jack Marchbanks, director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, said in a statement.
Other partners are the state DriveOhio initiative, U.S. Department of Transportation, Logan County, and the Northwest 33 Council of Governments, made up of the two cities, Union County and the Marysville-Union County Port Authority.
The project got a key green light in July when the FCC approved licenses to install short-range, wireless vehicle-to-infrastructure technology. That left only vehicle installation to complete. About 15 licenses still were pending approval, according to meeting minutes, because they were near military property.
