One of the USA’s leading suppliers of applied informatics systems for the transportation industry, Iteris Inc. and Lindsay Corporation, a leading global manufacturer and distributor of irrigation and infrastructure equipment and technology, have formed a partnership to create smart workzones across the USA’s roadway network.
The partnership supports the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Smarter Work Zone campaign to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety in work zones using intelligent transportation system (ITS) solutions. There were 799 workzone-related fatalities in the USA in 2017, up 4.5% from their previous three-year average of 764, according to the National Workzone Safety Information Clearinghouse.
The Iteris-Lindsay partnership announcement coincides with the FHWA-sponsored National Workzone Awareness Week, which is held annually at the start of construction season to encourage safe driving through highway workzones.
Lindsay’s Road Zipper System is designed to cost-effectively increase capacity and reduce congestion by making more efficient use of new or existing roadways. Developed for managed lanes and construction zone applications, the system uses innovative moveable barrier technology to create safe and ‘dynamic’ highways that offer real-time roadway reconfiguration, while maintaining positive barrier protection between lanes.
Road operators with managed lane facilities use the moveable concrete barriers in areas where there is a tidal traffic flow to redistribute unused capacity from the off-peak traffic direction to give more lanes to the peak traffic direction.
In construction applications, road system operators and contractors use the ‘Zippermobile’ vehicle to move the heavy-duty barriers in order to reconfigure the road layout in work zones. The partners will use the advanced diagnostics capabilities of Iteris’s iPeMS (Iteris Performance Measurement System) analytics and visualization software platform to identify construction areas that are prone to recurring congestion and potential work zone safety risks.
Lindsay’s Road Zipper System can then be deployed in these problem areas to accelerate construction projects, improve traffic flow, and help safeguard work crews and motorists by separating work areas and traffic. As well as the safety benefits, Road Zipper System deployments selected by the iPeMS platform should also see decreased travel times, increased fuel efficiency with resulting improved air pollution, and reduced system implementation time when compared with alternative workzone lane options.
“We are excited to collaborate with Lindsay to advance the FHWA’s campaign to create safer roadways and better protect motorists and road workers on construction sites,” said Ramin Massoumi, senior vice president and general manager for transportation systems at Iteris. “This partnership reinforces our commitment to the use of advanced technology and sophisticated data analytics to make the nation’s roadways safer.”
Scott Marion, president of infrastructure at Lindsay Corporation, commented, “Lindsay and Iteris are like-minded in our common goal to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety for both motorists and work crews through the use of innovative tools and state-of-the-art technology. By proactively identifying congestion issues, our customers will be able to address these concerns efficiently, and with a focus on ultimately mitigating the rising number of workzone-related fatalities.”
