30-03-2025
NC plans $2.5 million driver alerts for I-40, I-95 construction zones; system would be ‘eyes free' and ‘hands free'
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina transportation officials are pursuing a new $2.5 million driver alert system for more than 100 miles of Interstate 95 and Interstate 40 construction zones.
As many North Carolina drivers know, traffic on interstates in the Tar Heel state can occasionally come to an inexplicable abrupt halt — just as cars, motorcycles and huge tractor-trailers are hurtling along the highway at 70 mph.
The new system at first will be targeted in the construction areas of I-95 south of Fayetteville for 81 miles and I-40 near the Tennessee state line for 31 miles, according to the NCDOT.
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The idea is that it will address last-minute lane closures and odd stops along the highway — called anomalies. The project — officially called 'Automated Actionable Road Anomalies' — also will let drivers know to slow down for items in the road (such as things that might fall from a truck, or come loose from a bridge or be thrown onto a highway).
The project was first unveiled two years ago but apparently did not move along.
Earlier this month, the North Carolina Board of Transportation approved extending the project's grant until October of this year. Much of the money comes from a U.S. DOT grant.
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It's not clear how the actual alerts will work because the system requirement says notifications will be made to drivers 'hands free and eyes free.'
The overall plan says that the system will 'leverage and integrate public agency and privatesector datasets, advanced algorithms, and open data feeds.'
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Traffic data is already gathered for NCDOT by a vendor called INRIX, which can detect so-called 'hard braking' and traffic back-ups. It's not clear if the system will show images of traffic problems — there are already very few cameras along work zones.
The system alerts will go to commercial truck drivers and to various traveler apps, such as Waze, Google Maps and Apple Maps, according to the NCDOT.
The alerts could be a big help for tractor-trailers, which need more time to slow down, the NCDOT says.
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Also, crashes involving tractor-trailers can close highways for extended periods and contribute to secondary crashes, such as rear-end collisions.
'A fully loaded tractor-trailer traveling at 65 mph takes 66 percent longer to stop than a passenger car, according to the trucking industry,' the NCDOT says.
It's not known when the system might begin for regular North Carolina drivers on construction-plagued portions of I-95 or I-40 highways. A date has not been set for when the entire system might rollout statewide.
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