£22.9m of funding
In January 2019 £22.9m of funding was announced by the Department for Transport for research into technology that could improve roads across the UK in the near future. This £22.9 million has been divided between several local authorities, along with their partners, who will make up The Live Lab Projects.
Right here in the East of England Suffolk County Council have been allocated £4.41 million of the fund to adapt lighting columns to make them suitable for use as charging points for electric cars, or Wi-Fi hubs. Among partners, such as the University of Suffolk and British Telcom (BT), are Cleantech East Leadership Group member, enLight. enLight, who won the award for Excellence in
Read more below on the other projects contributing to the Live Lab
In Buckinghamshire funding has been allocated for the development of plastic columns, made out of recycled material, that will be used to mount lighting sensors and 5G antenna to collect data across the county network. Also, at this Live Lab, they will be testing the collection of kinetic energy from carriageways to harvest energy in roadside battery units.
Central Bedfordshire will be pioneering the way of solar power build into footways and a ‘Power Road’ using geothermal energy to de-ice surfaces such as car parks and bus stations when the weather turns. Pipes will be installed under
Staffordshire:
£3.39m has been allocated to Staffordshire to address the concept of a Smart Highways network extension to local roads. This will be developed and integrated with sensor and control technologies to feedback to a local transport hub. The University of Keele will be heavily involved with this Live Lab attesting Smart Infrastructure in rural and small community roads.
In Reading existing infrastructure will be upgraded to enable smart communication technology. In partnership with O2
Finally, in Solihull and Birmingham video analytics are going to be used to monitor vehicle journey times in differing time windows as well as cycle and pedestrian usage of major networks. These video analytics will influence variable0message signs on local roads allowing travellers to make travel decision such as re-routing with more accurate information.
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