The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has been awarded a pair of federal grants totaling more than $4.5 million to bolster safety, improve congestion and incident management.
Officials said a $4.35 million Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) via the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) would aid VDOT’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Meets Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) project.
The funds will be used to expand a pair of northern Virginia programs to add innovation to a parking project along the Interstate 95 corridor by using a combination of historical data, real-time parking data samples and crowd-sourcing information to predict parking availability; and expand the decision support system currently in development for the Northern Virginia Regional Multi-Modal Management Program (RM3P).
Officials said the RM3P endeavor would employ advanced machine-learning techniques and artificial intelligence to recommend incident and congestion management responses based on real-time conditions along the I-95 corridor, into Stafford County, Spotsylvania County and the City of Fredericksburg.
Additionally, VDOT was awarded $232,500 from the Department of Transportation (DOT) through its Safety Data Initiative to develop a systemic safety analysis tool to identify and visualize locations with higher safety risks benefiting from eight low-cost roadway safety countermeasures.
“With these grant awards, the federal government recognizes the Commonwealth’s commitment to developing innovative solutions to transportation challenges,” Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine said. “These funds will support research and technology to improve safety, decision-making and quality of life in Virginia.”