International Seminar on Roads, Bridges and Tunnels – ISRBT 2018: challenges and innovation was hosted at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki premises from November 9, 2018 until November 15, 2018. The seminar was organized by the Highway Engineering Laboratory of the School of Civil Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
On November 9, 2018, within the context of the opening speech entitled “Shifting intelligence from vehicle to infrastructure: the SAFE STRIP approach”, Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris, director of the Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT) at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) in Greece, has presented the innovations of SAFE STRIP (Safe and green Sensor Technologies for self-explaining and forgiving Road Interactive aPplications) project, presenting a disruptive technology aiming to achieve the embedding of C-ITS applications in existing road infrastructure, including novel I2V and V2I, as well as VMS / VSL functions.
After the presentation on the SAFE STRIP technical and operational specifications, Dr Bekiaris answered questions on the proposed solution’s applicability on different environments, transportation networks and users, as well as its sustainability, cost and life cycle duration focused on the durability of the materials and the batteries used.
Dr. E. Bekiaris claimed that the proposed solution addresses all kinds of road users (car, truck, VRU etc) and is applicable to all kinds of vehicles (equipped, not equipped, autonomous), focusing on the fact that SAFE STRIP is aimed at making the roads self explanatory and forgiving, reducing operational and maintenance cost achieving full recyclability and also at the provision of VAS, such as the real time predictive road maintenance functions.
Dr. Bekiaris ended his presentation giving the promise and undertaking the commitment that he will be presenting the pilot real demonstration results from the application of SAFE STRIP in Greek and Italian motorways within the next ISRBT of 2019 in order to provide real evidence, facts and mathematical data analysis and statistics, highlighting that, eventually, it is neither very expensive nor very difficult or time consuming to upgrade the services provided by an existing road infrastructure.
