The U.S. Department of Transportation recently issued more than $50 million to 34 technology demonstration projects across the country through its Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation or SMART grant program.
[Above photo by the Maryland Transit Administration]
That grant program – established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA – provides $500 million over five years for state, local, and tribal governments to support technologies that result in safer and more efficient transportation systems.
“[This] funding will help 34 communities across the country advance innovative solutions for better rail crossings, safer road intersections, improved transit accessibility, and more,” noted USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement.
The USDOT added that its SMART program is comprised of two stages, with this current crop of grants focused on “Stage 1” activities that include “planning” and “prototyping.”
As a result, recipients of this round of SMART grants will focus on conducting demonstration projects focused on “advanced smart community technologies” and systems to improve transportation efficiency and safety, the agency said.
Several state department of transportation projects received SMART grants during this round of awards:
- The Colorado Department of Transportation received more than $1.4 million for its Coordinated Adaptive Ramp Metering or CARM Expansion Project, which uses sensor-based ramp metering technologies to manage highway access at four locations statewide.
- The Maryland Transit Administration – a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation – received more than $1.2 million to help install a cloud-based transit signal priority system at 90 intersections on four high-frequency bus lines.
- The Maryland State Highway Administration – also a Maryland DOT division – received more than $1.6 million to help fund a work zone speed management system, with aerial drones collecting vehicle speed in and around roadway work zones in real-time.
- The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation received more than $1.7 million for a vehicle-to-everything or V2X data exchange to provide roadway curve speed warnings via cellular network to motorists.
- The Wyoming Department of Transportation received $1.5 million for a roadway work zone modernization project that focuses on the work zone data environment; aiming streamline and speed up work zone data collection and management.
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