PITTSBURGH — PennDOT officials are hoping to save lives with wrong-way detection equipment recently installed at 23 ramps along Route 28. Channel 11 has reported on numerous crashes and collisions in recent years, some of them deadly.
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On Wednesday, crews tested the new technology, telling us they had to make a few adjustments, but so far, it is working as intended.
“Wrong-way incidents, wrong-way collisions can have really severe consequences,” said Steve Sneddon, PennDOT senior assistant construction engineer. “We’ve identified the 28 Corridor as where we think this innovative technology can have the most immediate and the most significant, positive impact.”
Drone 11 was overhead as the testing got underway. A white SUV test drove the wrong way at the 28 off-ramp near the 40th Street Bridge, as state police had blocked off both sides. Thermal detection technology will pick up on a vehicle traveling the wrong way in the area known as the “detection zone.” Flashing lights and signs will automatically activate, giving the driver the opportunity to self-correct and turn around.
“If that fails, the vehicle then enters the confirmation zone, in at which point, the equipment notifies our Traffic Management Center,” said Sneddon.
That’s when controllers will verify the incident using cameras and notify police. Crews will still have to test and install equipment at a few more locations before the project is complete, but what is in place is functional. This is the first large-scale deployment of wrong-way detection equipment in Pennsylvania, but PennDOT said we’ll soon see it at the Interstate 79/910 interchange in Wexford and hope to expand capabilities in the future.
“The way the system is designed right now, it is to prevent the people from traveling the wrong way. We have hopes of, perhaps, enhancing the system in the future to where we could potentially notify other vehicles of an oncoming vehicle,” said Sneddon.
Testing was intended to continue on Thursday, but PennDOT planned to finish up on Wednesday ahead of schedule.
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