DriveOhio In January, Ohio Governor John R. Kasich signed an executive order creating a one-stop shop that will make it easier for researchers to advance connected and autonomous vehicle technologies. The new center, DriveOhio, will bring together those responsible for building infrastructure in Ohio with those who are developing new transportation technologies to better coordinate efforts and connect transportation providers with automotive and equipment manufacturers. Initially housed within the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), DriveOhio is a partnership between ODOT, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Administrative Services, the Ohio Turnpike InfrastructureCommission, thePublicUtilities Commissions of Ohio, the Department of Insurance, the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, and the Ohio Adjutant General’s Department. Jim Barna, currently chief engineer and assistant director of engineer policy for ODOT, will leave that role to lead DriveOhio as its executive director. Barna has worked at ODOT for more than 22 years and as a civil engineer for more than 28 years. To ensure the center is meeting the needs and keeping up with innovations in the industry, an expert advisory board will be created. The board will include leaders in the automotive, telecommunications, software development, insurance, data, cyber security industries, as well as researchers and developers, among others. As a first step, the department issued a Request for Proposals asking teams of engineering, technology, and data companies to compete for a contract to develop a statewide technology and data framework for its smart mobility initiative. The executive order also calls on ODOT to begin outfitting its fleet vehicles with devices that that can start tracking data that will be beneficial to advancing connected-vehicle research.
The 432-count fiber optic cable is in one inner micro duct out of the seven that are available in the conduit the teams installed.
The absence of overall mapping of the 37-mile corridor was a chal- lenge for the design team from the beginning. To complete the project on time, and with no time to fly or survey the entire corridor, the team took a minimalist approach that relied heavily on gathering existing data. They used LiDAR survey data, available mapping found on the web, existing plans, and minimal ground survey for control to create a baseline map for their design. Utilities were another challenge the team encountered. Without map- ping utility location, the teams were at risk of conflicting with exist- ing utilities, potentially causing a setback to the project schedule and disrupting services to utility customers. The team brought on a subsurface utility engineer to help avoid trans- mission mains and used Team Fishel’s real-time avoidance approach for the smaller utilities. This approach enabled the teams to pothole and avoid the utilities as it encountered them, and minimized the amount of upfront mapping and coordination that was needed with the utility companies. There were still times in which the teams required precision to avoid utilities, go under a culvert or an existing roadway, or in more urban areas where utilities were tight. In those cases, instead of plowing the line in, they bored it.
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