Development, testing, and implementation strategy of a translucent concrete-based smart lane separator for increased traffic safety

The design of roads has seen incremental changes in the past few decades while cars have advanced leaps and bounds in safety technology. Most of these technologies reply on road markings along with cameras, radars, and high-tech software to achieve the desired results. However, one piece of the traffic safety puzzle has so far gone undetected and has virtually remained unchanged since its advent, the lane markers; with the advancements in car technology, we also need high-tech road systems that can couple with the car's safety systems to reduce road accidents. In this regard, the presented research details the development, testing, and real-world application strategy for a new translucent concrete-based lane separator. The developed device is capable of transmitting colored light by embedding the plastic optical fibers in the self-compacting concrete. The proposed device can be embedded in the road surface for road illumination and for conveying real-time useful information to the drivers, such as traffic density, to optimize lane saturation, sudden stoppage in traffic ahead of the vehicle, road blockage, and changes in road geometry. The optimum volume of plastic optical fiber tendon is selected as 3% by experimentation. This resulted in 11% loss of compressive strength, which is much less than reported in literature. This reduction in loss of strength can be attributed to the innovative idea of using rough surface to improve the bonding of the plastic optical fiber tendon and the surrounding concrete. Strength test, temperature test, and skid resistance testing was conducted to evaluate the structural performance of the developed prototype. From the presented results and analysis, it can be concluded that the proposed device can be used for both flexible and rigid pavements. Furthermore, the newly developed material can be used for architectural and aesthetical purposes.