Kansas City-based Integrated Roadways revved up a 10-year pilot project with the city of Lenexa, which the smart pavement company expects will pave the way for other municipal projects.
“Lenexa is going to be seen as a thought leader about what’s possible for the next generation of mobility, and I think a lot of municipalities are going to be very motivated to follow the leader and set up their own smart infrastructure concession programs,” Integrated Roadways CEO and founder Tim Sylvester said.
How it works
Integrated Roadways developed a smart pavement system embedded with sensors and technology that can track real-time traffic and vehicle data and provide WiFi, 5G, Bluetooth and edge computing services. Its technology also allows electric vehicles to wirelessly charge as they’re driven down the road and can provide assisted autonomy to autonomous and connected vehicles.
The prefabricated, modular concrete road sections are faster to construct than traditional methods and can easily be removed for utility access without tearing up the street, Sylvester said.
The project complements Lenexa’s 2040 Vision plan, which includes smart city strategies and implementing “transportation and infrastructure systems of the future” to enhance mobility, safety and efficiency and solve tomorrow’s challenges.
Integrated Roadways' pilot project will roll out at five key intersections, starting with West 93rd Street and Renner Boulevard in Lenexa City Center. Future intersections will be based on the city’s needs and 2040 Vision plan. Construction on the first intersection could start as early as this year.
Valuable data collection
The smart pavement’s anonymous data collection includes vehicle counts, average vehicle speeds during different times of day and vehicle type, among other information. The data can be merged with Census records and Department of Motor Vehicle registrations to develop demographic and socioeconomic profiles of the traffic, he said. Not only can the data help cities with planning, area businesses and real estate developers can pay to access the data to make smarter business decisions. For developers, the data can help them identify the best properties for their projects and ideal tenants, Sylvester said.
The company’s Denver installation that launched in 2018 only validated the data’s value: “When you start analyzing the data, you find incredible insights that you would never be able to get just by getting the count from a day at an intersection, which is the traditional means,” he said. “A normal traffic study is like reading the blurb on a back of a book. (With Integrated Roadways), you’re actually reading the entire story.”
In April, Cisco Systems Inc. solicited Integrated Roadways to demonstrate its wireless charging technology for electric vehicles to vehicle manufacturers in Detroit. Sylvester expects the demo will lead to other opportunities.
Tip of the iceberg
Integrated Roadways, which has grown to 25 employees, envisions a future where private companies like itself will help cities fund road projects by leveraging commercial demand for the connected services, such as data collection and becoming a wireless internet service provider to area businesses. Roadway improvements are among a city’s most expensive budget items, he said. But Integrated Roadways can help the road pay for itself, which frees up the budget for other initiatives and “creates a huge financial opportunity for cities and states.”
Sylvester expects the Lenexa pilot will become a “roaring success” that inspires other cities and states to follow suit.
“I have never been more excited about the potential of what we’re doing and the partners we’re working with,” he said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg of what we’ll see over the next couple of years. … This is our largest project to date, and in my view looking back, will be one of the smallest ones we’ll ever do.”
