Wavetronixby Don Leavitt, Wavetronix LLC
Iowa is reconstructing the 40-year-old Interstate 235, which runs through downtown Des Moines past the Iowa State Capitol Building.
SmartSensor's easy installation process keeps Iowa DOT's ITS project on schedule.
So much to do, so little time.
That could be the slogan for the Iowa Department of Transportation's interstate reconstruction and ITS implementation project currently underway around metro Des Moines. Faced with an aggressive schedule in which to complete the extensive reconstruction and integrate a reliable ITS system, the Iowa DOT sought out ITS technology that would be easy to install and easy to use, while providing the most accurate traffic information possible. To help accomplish their goals, Iowa DOT chose to include the Wavetronix SmartSensor™ in their ITS deployment.
SmartSensor is a radar device that detects vehicle volume, occupancy and speed in up to eight lanes of traffic. Manufactured by Wavetronix LLC of Provo, Utah, the SmartSensor is a non-intrusive device that installs quickly and boasts the industry's only patented automatic configuration process.
“We are honored to be part of Iowa's strategic ITS program,” says Dr. David Arnold, CEO and co-founder of Wavetronix. Arnold founded Wavetronix in 2000 and brings to the ITS industry more than a decade of experience in radar design and engineering. “We're pleased that Iowa's DOT recognized SmartSensor's strengths and chose to implement our technology in their traffic system.”
The ITS project is focused on the traffic system around the Des Moines metro area. Originally, the ITS implementation was focused on Interstate 235, which is the main interstate corridor running through the heart of Des Moines. But according to Mike Jackson, Iowa DOT's Special Projects Engineer, the project has been expanded to cover the entire freeway system in the area, including Interstates 80 and 35 to the north of the city, and the four-lane bypass on Des Moines' south and east sides.
As one of Iow'a busiest roadways, I-235 sees average traffic volumes of more than 100,000 vehicles per day.
“We're addressing traffic as a network on the entire system and not just on a corridor,” Jackson says.
Iowa's ITS implementation is being driven by the reconstruction of I-235, which is more than 40 years old and carries, on average, more than one hundred thousand vehicles a day. Under the current project, the full 14 miles of urban interstate roadway will be reconstructed or improved at a total cost of around $429 million. Interchanges are being redone, ramps are being reconfigured, and several safety improvements are being made to bring the entire roadway up to modern standards.
“I-235 was designed according to standards back in the late '50s and early '60s, and those standards have evolved,” Jackson says. “The reconstruction project is bringing the entire corridor up to current standards, and doing so entails some significant redesign and reconstruction efforts.”
Those efforts are currently underway, with the entire reconstruction project expected to be completed in 2007. But ITS Engineer Willy Sorenson says major impacts to mainline traffic are expected to increase significantly this spring and will likely continue for the next three years. “That's why the ITS project has been implemented right now, to gear up for when there are impacts to mainline I-235 traffic,” says Sorenson.
As Iowa's traffic planners began to design the reconstruction, they quickly realized that Des Moines traffic would be seriously affected by the project for a couple of reasons. First, delays are expected from the lessened vehicle capacity due to the construction itself. Jackson says the DOT will try at almost all times to have two lanes in each direction open and available to traffic. “However, that lessens the capacity we have as we narrow the corridor,” Jackson says. “With the construction activity and the tendency that drivers have to slow down when they see that activity, it will lessen the capacity even further.”
Second, according to Sorenson, delays will be caused because there is a lack of good freeway detours through metro Des Moines. Sorenson says that, although the bypass loops to the north and south of the city will handle a significant amount of through traffic, there are still a lot of people using I-235 to access downtown Des Moines every day, and there are no close freeway detours within a one or two mile distance from I-235. “That's a major reason why we're spending money on ITS,” Sorenson says, “because there aren't good local detours, except on city streets, and we do not want to overwhelm those if we don't have to.”
The reconstruction effort is modernizing Des Moines' interstate traffic system, bringing it up to current safety standards.
The solution, they say, is accurate, up-to-the-minute information. That's why the Iowa DOT chose to immediately implement an advanced ITS network throughout the affected area, and Jackson says the implementation will have both short-term and long-term benefits for the state. In the short-term, Jackson says the network will provide “good and timely information to the traveling public, and also provide traffic management tools to DOT and local officials so that we can better manage traffic due to the problems that will be caused by the reconstruction of 235.”
Long-term, Jackson says they anticipate the ITS network will give the traveling public the information they need to choose the route they drive when traveling through Des Moines. “And if there are incidents or accidents that occur,” Jackson says, “or special events that are generating large amounts of traffic and causing problems, commuters will be able to have that information timely and accurately so that they can still make the best decision on how they need to get to their destinations.”
To accomplish this, Iowa DOT is spending about $3.8 million to purchase and install SmartSensors, video cameras and dynamic traffic message boards. The cameras and sensors will be used simultaneously to gather real-time traffic information, and both devices will use wireless communication technology to deliver the information back to a central location; the dynamic message boards will be used in conjunction with local media and the Iowa DOT's 511 Traveler Information System's Internet site and telephone service to deliver the information to the traveling public. The information dissemination will be managed by Iowa DOT's Condition Acquisition and Reporting System (CARS), the driver for Iowa's 511 Traveler Information System. Currently, CARS is being modified to manage the cameras, sensors and message boards, and Jackson says the system being deployed in Des Moines could eventually be used anywhere in the state.
“This system is designed to essentially be a virtual Traffic Management Center,” Jackson explains. “It is Internet-based, so if you have adequate bandwidth and a browser and an authorized password, you can do traffic management functions from any location. So the functioning aspects of a TMC can be performed anywhere.”
Information from the SmartSensors and the cameras will be monitored at a central point, and Sorenson says it was important to the Iowa DOT to have two separate devices. “If the sensors pick up an incident or just slowed-down traffic, the camera operator can zoom in on whatever's going on and check it out while the sensor continues to pick up data,” he says.
The SmartSensor radar device detects vehicles in multiple lanes and in difficult locations.
Jackson agrees, saying he hopes having both devices will eliminate delays in incident response times. “We're trying to expedite our responsiveness by being able to do that remotely right at the time that we get notification,” he says, “so that the right people and the right equipment gets to the scene more quickly and keeps traffic on the route its intended to go.”
The time frame for the ITS implementation is aggressive, to say the least. Jackson and Sorenson wrote their Requests for Proposals in early 2003; contracts were awarded to the various parties in August 2003 and by July 2004, all of the equipment is scheduled to be installed and operating. With less than a year to complete the ITS implementation, Jackson says that ease of installation became an important factor in selecting the technology for their system. “It's quite an ambitious schedule to get things going when you're not starting the installation until really the beginning of winter in Iowa,” says Jackson.
Easy installation was also important because Iowa DOT is installing the equipment themselves. Budgetary considerations made it necessary to find sensors that would be easy for Iowa DOT personnel to install, not only to stay on schedule but also to save money in labor and costs. Other criteria for the sensors included accurate, all-weather speed and volume data, ease of operation, versatility and ease of maintenance. Above all, Jackson says, they knew they wanted an above-ground radar sensor. “We knew that was the type of sensor that would best meet our needs.”
Jackson and Sorenson both say they're pleased with the way SmartSensor has met their needs, but at the time they began writing their RFPs, they weren't even aware SmartSensor existed. The Iowa DOT was first introduced to Wavetronix at the 2003 ITS Heartland Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, and Jackson says discovering SmartSensor was a good thing. “It led us to know that we would have competition in the selection of a side-firing radar type sensor which we had wanted for this project,” he says. “Discovering SmartSensor gave us a competitive situation, which is always good for us in giving us the best choice of capabilities possible.”
How easy has SmartSensor been to install? According to Jackson, installation did not begin until October 2003, and by the end of the year, more than half of the sensors were installed, and most of those are currently active and operational. “Essentially, half of the installation process is completed,” Jackson says. “To meet the schedule of the project, we certainly are very much on track to do that, and we have full anticipation that all of the sensors will be installed and functioning on time.”
SmartSensor's all-weather performance capabilities require no scheduled maintenance for a high degree of accuracy and reliability.
Ease of installation was especially important to Steve Highland. As the Iowa DOT's Equipment Repair Coordinator, Highland is in charge of the two, four-person crews responsible for installing the SmartSensors. According to Highland, eight people have been more than capable of putting in the sensors and staying on schedule.
“One of the toughest locations they had to put SmartSensors in required two units, and basically in a half hour they had both units up,” Highland says. “In half an hour to 45 minutes they had the sensors bolted up and operating and gathering data.”
Traffic Monitoring Supervisor Phil Meraz is equally impressed. Considering the tight time frame they've had to work with, Meraz says he's proud of what they've been able to accomplish. “We were able to do a lot more than we ever dreamed possible. The time frame we were originally given was going to be starting the installation April 1 and working through Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we went from eight months to five weeks,” he says. “But even in five weeks, we were 60 percent complete of 65 locations, with just two four-person crews.”
Meraz refers to SmartSensor's easy installation and set up as “one-button configuration. To be able to hit a couple of keystrokes on a computer and have the sensor figure out where the lanes of traffic are for you, have it all set up for you, that's cool.”
SmartSensor's ease of installation has resulted in a couple of unexpected benefits as well. First, according to Highland, is ease of maintenance. Being able to quickly remove and replace the sensors is critical to Highland, because of the savings to his team in terms of time and money. “It's something that, from what we've seen so far, looks to us like it's going to be a big improvement over what we've had in the past.”
The second benefit is personal safety. “We get rid of the safety aspect because we're not out there blocking off a complete lane of traffic to put our sensors in,” Highland says. The need for safety was graphically illustrated last October on the very first day of installation when two Iowa DOT employees sitting in a state vehicle were side-swiped by a tractor-trailer whose driver was not paying attention. Safety is an important issue for the Iowa DOT, and Highland says being able to install and set up a SmartSensor unit in less than an hour has greatly decreased the employees' exposure to dangerous conditions. “They still have people that don't seem to want to pay attention, and it does help, the ease of installation. They can get in there, get the work done and be out of there sooner,” Highland explains. “Before, we'd be in the same location for six hours. Now they're at a location for maybe an hour and they move on.”
Iowa DOT empolyee Bob Twit works at a SmartSensor installation. SmartSensor is easy to integrate into existing systems.
Iowa's DOT has also been impressed with the data being gathered by SmartSensor, and the fact that SmartSensor will continue to perform with the same accuracy, no matter what the weather is like. But according to Highland and Meraz, it was SmartSensor's ability to operate over several lanes at once that was a major selling point for the equipment. “When the initial plans were made for this ITS project, they were looking at 88 actual pieces of equipment being installed,” says Highland. Wavetronix visited the proposed sites and determined that the Iowa DOT could get the same results with fewer sensors, “Because of different capabilities of the equipment that we had not seen with anything else,” says Meraz.
In addition to accurate speed, volume and occupancy data, SmartSensor is also a reliable traffic counter, and Meraz says that's another benefit that will save the Iowa DOT time and money in the long run. “Since we're going to have these sensors being used with the ITS project, we were looking at how we could use these as permanent traffic counters at the same time,” Meraz explains.
Mike Jackson agrees. “SmartSensor allows us to have 24-hour counts, 365-days a year,” he says. “We were looking for a device that we could incorporate into our daily business needs as well as meet the specific needs of the ITS project.”
Iowa DOT saves time and money by installing SmartSensors on existing roadway structures.
SmartSensor has shown that kind of operational versatility in other ways as well. First, it is manufactured with flexible connectivity, so it was easy to incorporate SmartSensor into the Iowa DOT's wireless communication system. Second, the sensor is equipped with multiple outputs, which for Phil Meraz was one of the sensor's most important features. According to Meraz, this allows the Iowa DOT to seamlessly integrate SmartSensor into their existing system. “We can have a secondary output going to the standard control unit that we're already using, and pipe information in and it's exactly the same as any other part of the system that we currently have.”
In fact, Iowa DOT has been so impressed with Wavetronix, they've opted to add another Wavetronix product to their traffic management system. SmartDataCenter is an intelligent data collector that can monitor each individual sensor in the ITS network and generate data reports in multiple formats for different specified periods of time. The DOT plans to use the SmartDataCenter to collect traffic information from the SmartSensors, and then feed the information to the systems which will deliver the information to the public. Willy Sorenson describes the DOT's partnership with Wavetronix as an essential part of the ITS project. “I'd say we couldn't be more pleased with Wavetronix.”