The Federal Highway Administration recently awarded the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) a $1 million Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) Demonstration Program grant.
The grant was awarded to MassDOT’s Aeronautics Division for the second phase of a three-phase project using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to create a digital software systems infrastructure.
“By using drones to collect and analyze data on highway infrastructure, this second phase of our project represents a significant step toward leveraging new technology to help MassDOT Highway improve management processes, strategic planning, and operations,” Acting MassDOT Aeronautics Administrator Denise Garcia said.
The UAS-based digital infrastructure is designed to integrate with MassDOT Highway projects as well as other agencies’ technology to enhance the state’s ability to collect, store, process, and disseminate UAS data. It will support a variety of projects including advanced bridge inspection, asset mapping, construction monitoring, and highway corridor asset detection/inspection. In addition, it is expected to allow for the monitoring of multiple construction projects simultaneously, provide enhanced asset inspection opportunities, and lower some project’s costs.
In 2021, phase one also received an AID grant with match funds of $250,000.
MassDOT also recently received federal grants for various projects including $1.72 billion to replace the Cape Cod Bridges.