Future Ready Features: 4 Things to Know

Exploring the future of safety, resilience, equity and innovation in infrastructure and the movement of people…taking shape today.

Preparing for lift-off

The next generation of regional transport is just on the horizon, and it looks to revolutionize urban and rural mobility, by air.

Billions of dollars have been invested in developing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircrafts that are in the process of certification, and the infrastructure needed to support them — like “vertiports” that enable the landing and takeoff of VTOLs — is already in planning. These advanced air mobility (AAM) innovations offer the promise of fast, clean and affordable travel to connect more communities, as well as a variety of other resulting benefits, including:

• Increased access for e-commerce, parcel delivery and emergency services.
• Reduction in traffic congestion on roads and highways.
• Improved air quality and decarbonization driven by electric and hydrogen technologies.
• Enhanced safety using connected and autonomous flight systems.
• Revival of rural communities and small airports, and areas with limited infrastructure.

However, as with the integration of any large-scale innovation into an established system, thorough planning may spell the difference between success or failure. As such, the successful launch of AAM networks will rely on early coordination with mass transit authorities, transport providers and other important stakeholder groups, as well as readying the necessary physical and digital infrastructure, including and especially the Vertiport Automation System (VAS).

Critical to scaling AAM operations, the VAS is designed to act as the central nervous system of a vertiport network and manage all aspects of vertiport operations — it is the key to “unlocking the value of an entire vertiport network and AAM ecosystem.”

Suspension of disrepair

Among the more than 1,400 suspension bridges across the U.S., there are over 50 major spans that serve as critical connections for transportation and goods movement. Coincidentally, several of the longest of those are also the oldest:

• George Washington, New York City — 3,500 feet, built 1931
• Golden Gate, San Francisco, California — 4,200 feet, built 1937
• Bronx-Whitestone, New York City — 2,300 feet, built 1939
• Delaware Memorial, Wilmington, Delaware – 2,150 feet, built 1951
• Walt Whitman, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 2,000, built 1957

Besides age, what do all these bridges have in common? They do what bridges do: they span bodies of water. Surprise! Not groundbreaking news, we know. But what that means is they all share a common environment — wet and humid — that is just right for introducing corrosion into the most critical structural elements of these infrastructure assets: suspension cables.

Enter the cable dehumidification system.

An innovation being continually refined, dehumidification removes water from the internal cable environment by reducing humidity levels to extend the serviceable lifespan of the bridge. This process involves creating a system that provides dry air to the cable in a controlled manner using air blowers, humidity monitors, controls and mechanical equipment, and wrapping and sealing the cable so that that the dried air can pass through the cable as a conduit.

Dehumidification systems have been implemented on many essential bridge facilities, including a few of those iconic spans mentioned above.

Automation demonstration

The era of automotive automation is upon us. It can be seen in various levels, from driver assistance technologies like adaptive cruise control and lane keeping available in new personal vehicles, to the driverless cars that ride-hailing service, Waymo, deploys.

Many of these early applications have proven their safety value, and as technologies evolve to deliver higher levels of automation, proponents expect to see even greater safety benefits from reduced accidents between cars, and with pedestrians and cyclists. There are other compelling potential benefits of widespread automation as well, including increased equity in mobility for elderly, disabled and underserved communities; enhanced quality of life through more efficient traffic management; and minimized environmental impact from operational and fuel efficiency, and the shift to electric and alternative fuels. And while broad deployment of fully autonomous systems is yet to come, there is significant investment in development, testing and validation.

One major opportunity is in the introduction of automation in public transit — or at least in certain aspects of transit operations. Revenue service of bus networks, for instance, are complex operating environments. So, advancement in driver assistance is a step forward there. But opportunities exist to implement higher levels of automation in certain circumstances.

This first of its kind demonstration looks at the feasibility of automating operations of a 40-foot battery electric bus within an active bus yard, including bus wash, remote start, charging using an overhead charger, and self-driving to pick up an operator on its way out the front gate.

Burying the past to reconnect community

The best transportation infrastructure connects communities; the worst divides them. Historically, freeways have tended to fall into the latter category, often reducing access to transit, jobs, education, healthcare, food and nature, and exacerbating inequity and economic disparity in otherwise adjacent city neighborhoods.

Fortunately, much attention is being paid to divisive infrastructure of the past, and solutions to remedy them and knit communities back together are advancing across the country. These projects are wide ranging and include policy, planning and construction (and deconstruction) efforts, such as:

• Land-use and zoning reform
• Transit-oriented development
• Removal of existing infrastructure
• Undergrounding of facilities into trenches or tunnels
• Covering freeways with “decks” or lids” to provide active, connecting space?

Despite the title of this piece, learning from the past (not burying it) is essential to making better planning decisions that support both the function of our infrastructure assets and the communities that use them. That said, one such transportation project did bury the past (or at least the interstate) to support both objectives.

That project — Colorado’s largest to date — removed a visual and physical barrier, improved traffic operations, and reconnected environmental justice communities through both safe pedestrian connections and a four-acre “cover park.”