{"id":3118,"date":"2022-05-17T19:47:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=3118"},"modified":"2024-06-20T19:28:30","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T19:28:30","slug":"expert-roads-need-to-be-smart-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2022\/Q2\/expert-roads-need-to-be-smart-heres-why","title":{"rendered":"Expert: Roads need to be \u2018smart.\u2019 Here\u2019s why."},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —<\/p> \n

Constant construction on your vacation route, jarring potholes during the winter and bridge collapses will continue until roads are \u201csmart enough\u201d to better prevent their own damage, says a Purdue University civil engineer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This wouldn\u2019t mean making roads look like the flashy, computerized highways you see in science fiction movies depicting the future. In fact, roads might look exactly the same. But the materials the roads are made of would have the ability to digitally communicate through technology embedded beneath the surface or repair themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur roads won\u2019t get safer if we continue fixing potholes or building infrastructure as we have been building it. We need to think about how to incorporate a digital transformation,\u201d says Luna Lu<\/a>, a professor in Purdue\u2019s Lyles School of Civil Engineering<\/a>, who is an expert in innovating concrete to improve roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lu directs the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure<\/a> at Purdue. She gives three reasons why roads need a digital facelift:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Roads that \u201ctalk\u201d might cut down on construction \u2013 and traffic. <\/strong>Lu has developed sensors<\/a> that can more accurately \u201ctell\u201d engineers when freshly paved concrete is ready to take on heavy traffic, reducing the likelihood of the concrete developing cracks and needing to be repaired again. Fewer repairs throughout the year would mean fewer traffic slowdowns due to construction. \u201cWe don\u2019t need to completely rebuild existing infrastructure to make it smarter. Implementing sensors is low-hanging fruit,\u201d Lu says.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Smarter roads could be better for the environment. <\/strong>The process of producing one ton of cement can generate up to one ton of carbon dioxide. Less road repair would reduce cement production. Lu and her collaborators are working on materials that would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide generated in the production of cement. Lu\u2019s lab also is developing a way that concrete could heal its own cracks<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. We\u2019ll be using roads differently in the future. <\/strong>Population growth patterns change over time, affecting the flow of traffic. Electric and autonomous vehicles would also change the layout of roads and how they are used. \u201cInfrastructure shapes us, and we shape infrastructure,\u201d Lu says. \u201cWhen a lot of our roads were first built in the U.S., we didn\u2019t have tools that could collect data and inform decisions. Now we do have those tools. We need policies and regulation that are more adaptive to human needs.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    About Purdue University<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today\u2019s toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last four years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at\u00a0https:\/\/stories.purdue.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
    \n
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    \n Writer, Media contact:<\/strong> Kayla Wiles, 765-494-2432, wiles5@purdue.edu<\/a>
    Source:<\/strong> Luna Lu,     luna@purdue.edu<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Constant construction on your vacation route, jarring potholes during the winter and bridge collapses will continue until roads are \u201csmart enough\u201d to better prevent their own damage, says a Purdue University civil engineer. This wouldn\u2019t mean<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"department":[31,58],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[66],"coauthors":[64],"class_list":["post-3118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-excellence","department-engineering","department-purdue-moves","source-purdue-news","purdue_today_topic-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3119,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118\/revisions\/3119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}