Development, Testing, and Implementation Strategy

of a Translucent Concrete-Based Smart Lane Separator

for Increased Traffic Safety
Muhammad Saleem 1; Mostafa Morsi Elshami, Ph.D., M.ASCE 2; and Muhammad Najjar 3
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Abstract: 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. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001240. © 2016
American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Translucent concrete; Structural testing; Road management; Traffic safety; Accident mitigation; Plastic optical fiber;
Implementation strategy; Construction materials and methods.

Introduction conditions that potentially impact on travel time and road safety.
By using the ITS, continuous monitoring of the road infrastructure
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been blessed with vast fossil fuel is possible, and authorities can uniformly monitor changes in user
reserves, which have resulted in immense economic growth and behavior and implement various preemptive strategies. However,
development. Approximately 23% of total energy consumption by using ITS, road structure remains virtually unchanged. All
of the country is associated with the transportation sector (Ministry across the globe, research and development has been focused on
of Transport 2011). According to the traffic statistics, on average, development and implementation of modern technology for smart
6,205 lives are lost each year in 500,000 accidents on the roads of road systems. In the modern era, cars have developed immensely as
the kingdom (Ministry of Transport 2014). Authorities have been compared to just a few decades ago. Modern cars are equipped with
working for the past several decades to improve the traffic safety several technologies that not only assist in occupant safety but also
condition of the roads. One of the important steps was to implement work actively for minimizing the injuries to the pedestrians in case
the intelligent transport systems (ITS) for better management and of accident, such as hood airbags (Euro NCAP 2012). Furthermore,
monitoring of the road infrastructure. Intelligent transport systems car manufacturing companies are moving towards the autonomous
provide a variety of information to the road users about the traffic self-driving vehicles in the near future and envision driverless cars
conditions, service reliability, road maintenance, and weather by 2025 (Morgan 2013).
1
On the contrary, road design and development has been stuck
Associate Professor, Dept. of Basic Engineering, College of Engineer- in the primitive era with minor incremental improvements in road
ing, Univ. of Dammam, Office Bldg. No. 500, 9975, P.O. Box 1982,
Dammam 31451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (corresponding author).
design, such as better lane marking paint, better quality of asphalt,
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] improvement in energy efficient lighting, and development in cat-
2
Professor, Dept. of Construction Engineering, College of Engineering, eye technology. The most recent attempt to revolutionize the road
Univ. of Dammam, Office Bldg. No. 500, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31451, design has been in the form of solar roadways (Solar Roadways
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Incorporated 2015), as shown in Fig. 1, where the inventors
3
Undergraduate Student, Dept. of Construction Engineering, College envisioned a road surface paved with hexagonal solar panels that
of Engineering, Univ. of Dammam, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31451, generate electricity that can be used to power embedded LED’s
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
within its housing. A programmable module of solar panel can
Note. This manuscript was submitted on March 31, 2016; approved on
August 2, 2016; published online on November 28, 2016. Discussion per- be used to depict various shapes and color, thereby eliminating
iod open until April 28, 2017; separate discussions must be submitted for the need of traditional road furniture, such as lighting, marking,
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Construction En- and sign boards. However, the proposed invention still has to over-
gineering and Management, © ASCE, ISSN 0733-9364. come several real-world challenges associated with its application

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 between manmade structures to nature. However, the researchers
found that mixing glass powder as a replacement for cement
and the lack of coarse aggregate reduced the strength of concrete,
thereby confining its application to esthetical purposes (Afshinnia
and Rangaraju 2016; Omran and Hamou 2016; Vijayakumar et al.
2013; Saribiyik et al. 2013; Gautam et al. 2012). In order to over-
come this limitation, research has been going in the field of trans-
lucent material development over the past decade. By using
different approaches in the preparation of translucent concrete, such
as the use of plastic optical fibers (POF) and acrylic cylinders to
either develop large strength or use these embedded materials
for structural health monitoring (Basma et al. 2013; He et al.
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2011; Sawant et al. 2014; Shakir et al. 2014), they found that
by using optical fibers embedded in concrete, the loss of strength
Fig. 1. Hexagonal solar panel for solar roadway with strengthened can be reduced. Furthermore, the volume of optical fiber addition
glass top into concrete was proportional to the light transmitting capability of
concrete. It was also identified that the bond of the optical fiber and
concrete is an important factor because it is responsible for the load
carrying capacity and deformational response. In addition, the re-
(Northwestern University 2009; Patrick 2016; David 2014).
searchers also evaluated the effect of presence of plastic coating on
Keeping in line with the previously mentioned discussion, the pre-
the fiber and its effect on the bond performance of the concrete and
sented research work shows the development, testing, and imple-
the embedded fibers (Kalymnios 2005; Ansari and Navalurkar
mentation strategy of a low-cost translucent concrete-based smart
1993; Ansari and Libo 1998; Kim et al. 2011; Sumitro and Tsubaki
lane separator. This device can be embedded into the road surface
1998).
and can be used to transfer real-time information to the road users.

Objectives Smart Road Lane Separator

The research work aims to focus on developing a new efficient and In the presented research work, a low-cost translucent concrete
cost-effective smart road lane separator. The proposed device can was developed by embedding plastic optical fiber into the self-
be embedded into the road surface and can be used for transferring compacting concrete developed solely by using locally available
real-time information to the road users. The main objectives of the resources. Self-compacting concrete was prepared owing to its in-
presented research are summarized as follows: creased workability, which allowed it to flow in corners and small
1. To develop a translucent concrete capable of transmitting light areas. Cube specimens were cast at the trial-and-error stage to
and color, using locally available resources in the Kingdom of check the compressive strength of the developed concrete and also
Saudi Arabia; to evaluate the percentage of light passing through the fibers. The
2. Understanding the various challenges associated with the real- minimum compressive strength requirement was set at 35 MPa.
world application of the proposed device, such as types of load- This target strength was chosen to allow the material to withstand
ing, harsh environment, temperature and permeability, material harsh traffic loading and impact loadings generated by the standard
selection, and prototype development to meet the real-world truck wheel. Saleem (2016) conducted a detailed modeling and
challenges; and analysis of the response of smart lane separator (SLS) to impact
3. To conduct mechanical testing of developed specimen to ascer- loading generated by the moving truck wheel and found that the
tain their real-world feasibility and to propose a suitable system developed material was able to successfully sustain the applied
of conveying information to the road users through the newly loadings. Plastic optical fibers were wound into tendons; each ten-
developed lane separators. don existed of 12 optical fibers wound together into a single piece,
Application of the developed lane separator can lead to a smarter as shown in Fig. 2. Plastic optical fibers were held together with the
road median that can be used to display useful information for the help of binding tape; it is to be brought to notice that the use of
road users, thereby reducing traffic hazards. Furthermore, road binding tape can lead to corrosion and breaking of the wires; how-
lighting systems can be improved to make it more efficient. ever, detailed testing related to the selection of an optimum binder,
such as tape or binding admixtures, is subject to future research.
These tendons were developed keeping in mind the color transfer
Background and Methodology capabilities of the plastic optical fibers (POF) as well as the stress
birefringence property of fibers. These properties transform the ten-
The proceeding section details the background of related research don into a sensing element that is capable of measuring the inner
in the field of translucent concrete, use of plastic optical fibers in
concrete, and the factors affecting bond performance of embedded
fibers. Furthermore, a detailed overview explaining all the compo-
nents of the smart road lane separator device, its working method-
ology, and the development of a prototype is presented in sequence
for the readers.
Alejandro et al. (2004) developed translucent concrete by incor-
porating glass powder. Their aim was to develop a material capable
of transmitting light shadows in order to give the dull gray concrete
Fig. 2. Optical fiber tendon
a lively feel. This would also give the ambiance of better interaction

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Fig. 3. Functional description of proposed smart lane separator [M. Saleem, “System, method and apparatus for providing lane separation and traffic
safety,” U.S. Patent No. 14/878,583 (2015)]

stress state of surrounding concrete thereby allowing remote mon- proposed design under the action of impact load generated by
itoring of the level of stress of inner concrete using data obtained the moving truck wheel load. From the analysis, it was found that
from plastic optical fibers’ tendons (Kalymnios 2005; Ansari and the proposed design is suitable for taking the impact loading gen-
Navalurkar 1993; Ansari and Libo 1998; Kim et al. 2011). Fig. 3 erated by the truck wheel, and the compressive strength of the
represents the schematic diagram of detailing the functional de- material achieved during laboratory testing was also sufficient to
scription of the proposed smart lane separator (SLS). The layout sustain the loading without any failure (Saleem 2016). However,
of the device is categorized into two main compartments. The the presented work deals with the development of the SLS and
top compartment, which consists of the self-compacting concrete its implementation strategy, so the structural testing details are
with embedded POF, and the bottom compartment, which is made out of scope of this work. Furthermore, the schematic layout of
up of an anodized metal shell with anchor bolts connecting it to the SLS and its electrical wiring details are as provided in the following
base of the top compartment. The base compartment acts as the section of the presented manuscript.
nervous center of the SLS, housing pressure sensing and data col-
lection devices, along with the lighting source and refractory layer.
Small light-emitting diodes are embedded in the base compartment Working Description
and act as the light source, providing uniform lumens throughout
Fig. 5 depicts the conceptual working scheme of the SLS. Initially,
the length of the SLS. The black circles shown in Fig. 3 represent the
when the lane is idle without any sustained loading, the color of
external power ports used to connect the smart lane separator the
SLS is white, to inform the road users about normal conditions.
power supply. The weight of the traffic is applied on top of
In case of any sustained pressure on top of the road surface because
the fibers and is transferred to the ground beneath with the help of
of a traffic accident, sand, snow, or animal crossing, the smart lane
anchor bolts embedded in the top and bottom compartments. The
separator’s pressure sensors communicate to the nervous system
tendons are composed of optical fibers with the ability to transfer
about the change in pressure, and the central nervous system dic-
colored light in addition to their sensing ability. This makes the top
tates the LED light to change color to red within a zone of 25 m.
half of SLS a rigid beam, with the bottom half being used for data
The portion of the road between the 25- and 50-m zone automati-
collection and pressure sensing. Fig. 4 shows the layout of the SLS
cally changes the color to yellow, warning the oncoming traffic of
in the road surface. A detailed numerical modeling and analysis
the existence of hazard ahead, while the road zone outside the 50 m
has been conducted to validate the structural performance of the
remains green in color. The time period required to trigger the pre-
viously described mechanism is chosen based on the utility of the
road. In the case of main highways with speed limit of 120 km=h,
the sustained pressure timer is triggered at 3 s, whereas on roads

Fig. 4. Cross section showing the layout of smart road lane separator
within the road structure Fig. 5. Conceptual working scheme of smart lane separator

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Fig. 6. Mold preparation

with a 20 km=h, the speed limit trigger is set at 10 s. This mecha-

nism will be used to communicate real-time information about Fig. 7. Casting
the road condition to the road users, thus making them aware
of possible hazards lying ahead, thereby resulting in fewer traffic
accidents.
steel blade trowel, and specimens were demolded after 24 h and
submerged in water curing tank for the period of 28 days. Testing
was executed after the completion of the curing period. Fig. 7
Prototype Development
depicts the casted specimen, and Table 1 provides the details of
The first challenge in making a functional prototype was to develop specimens cast. During casting, the SLS was turned to the side
a concrete material that is strong enough to sustain large traffic for ease in placement of concrete. It is to be noticed that in the real
loading under severe environmental conditions. In this regard, a world, the fiber ends of the SLS were facing upwards to allow for
principle decision was made to use only locally available resources colored light to pass through. Furthermore, all the structural mod-
and materials, which would lead to lower cost of production and eling, analysis, and testing was conducted with the fiber ends facing
would eventually result in practical utility. In this regard, ASTM in the upward direction. Three beam specimens representing SLS
C150 (ASTM 2012) ordinary portland cement Type I was used were cast for testing under flexure and skid resistance, whereas six
as a binding material, having the chemical composition of percent- cube specimens were cast for light passing, compression, and tem-
age by weight as follows: CaO ¼ 64.3, SiO2 ¼ 22, Al2 O3 ¼ 5.64, perature testing. The details of the mentioned tests are provided in
Fe2 O3 ¼ 3.8, K2 O ¼ 0.36, MgO ¼ 2.11, Na2 O ¼ 0.19, equivalent the subsequent section. It is worth mentioning here that by embed-
alkalis ðNa2 O þ 0.658K2 OÞ ¼ 0.42, loss on ignition = 0.7, ding glass fiber in the concrete, it is possible to have the internal
C3 S ¼ 55, C2 S ¼ 19, C3 A ¼ 10, and C4 AF ¼ 7. Dune sand stress state of the embedded material. The embedded glass fiber
was used as fine aggregate, which acts as a filler, having bulk spe- acts as a photoelastic material, which is isotropic under normal con-
cific gravity and water absorption of 2.62 and 0.62%, respectively. ditions but upon the application of loading the fiber, transforms into
Crushed limestone was used as coarse aggregate with a maximum being anisotropic material. This is a result of the light birefringence
size of 9.5 mm, which provides strength and economy in construc- phenomenon. Knowing the optical constant of isochromatics and
tion, having bulk specific gravity and water absorption of 2.60 and isoclinics along with the thickness of the glass fibers, it is possible
1.08%, respectively. Polycarboxiate ether-based superplasticizer to estimate, with accuracy, the internal stress condition of the sur-
was added to the mix as 0.5% by volume of cement in order to rounding material. This remote monitoring property of the glass
give the mix the desired workability. The mix constituent contained fiber can be used to estimate the remaining design life of the em-
ordinary portland cement, fine aggregate, and medium aggregate of bedded SLS in the road surface. However, the presented paper only
a 1, 1.7, and 2 ratio, respectively. The cement content was details the development and testing of the proposed invention, and
370 kg=m3 , and water to cement ratio was 0.4. First, trial mixes the remote sensing portion is outside the scope of the presented
were carried out to obtain the optimum dosage of superplasticizer, research.
which complies with ASTM C494 (ASTM 2013) Type F, in order
to achieve the desired workability, flow ability, and resistance to
segregation. Thereafter, three mixes were cast by mixing the con- Testing and Evaluation
crete ingredients in an electrical drum-type concrete mixture. Dry
materials including cement, coarse, and fine aggregates were mixed Strength Testing
first for 2 min, and then, the raw material was thoroughly mixed by
adding water along with 50% of superplasticizer for 30 s. The re- Past researchers (Basma et al. 2013; He et al. 2011; Shakir et al.
maining 50% of water and superplasticizer was added thereafter 2014; Sawant et al. 2014) have reported that addition of POF in
and mixed for another 2 min so that the reactivity of superplasti-
cizer was completed and the mix became workable. Concrete was
placed into the molds in three equal layers. Fig. 6 shows the mold of Table 1. Specimen Description
casted specimens. It can be seen that POF tendons were placed Serial number Type Number Size (mm)
through the predrilled holes of the molds and were secured in place
by adhesive glue. Casting was completed after preparation of the 1 Beam 3 1,000 × 150 × 150
2 Cubes 6 150 × 150 × 150
molds. Finally, the concrete surface was leveled with the help of a

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 Table 2. Compressive Strength Test Results
Curing Compressive Stress Flow
Size (mm) (days) strength (kN) (MPa) test (mm)
Without POF tendons
150 × 150 × 150 28 858.92 36.98 650–680
150 × 150 × 150 28 847.68 36.50 650–680
150 × 150 × 150 28 851.31 36.65 650–680
Average strength 852.64
With POF tendons
150 × 150 × 150 28 727.90 31.34 650–680
150 × 150 × 150 28 810.87 34.91 650–680
150 × 150 × 150 28 734.01 31.60 650–680
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Average strength 757.59

concrete results in loss of strength. Hence, the goal of present

research was to lower the strength loss by utilizing the optimal per-
centage replacement so that the benefits of light transmission can be
achieved at the lowest loss of strength. In this regard, various sam- Fig. 8. Cracking pattern analysis
ples for compressive strength testing were prepared by replacing
the different percentage volume ratio of fibers to that of concrete.
From trial and error approach, 3% volume replacement was
achieved to be the optimal percentage because it resulted in the light filters were used, namely red, blue, and green, to check col-
least loss of strength while giving the desirable translucency. A ored light transmissibility. Then, the cube specimen was removed
compression testing machine was used to find out the compressive from the assembly, and the readings were taken at the same distance
strength of specimens with and without POF tendons. Both samples from the neon lamp. Both the values were compared, and the per-
were tested under compressive loading, and percentage reduction in centage intensity of light passing through the translucent concrete
load carrying capacity was calculated to identify the strength loss was calculated, as shown subsequently. The same test was also
owing to the addition of tendons. Loading was applied parallel to performed in the dark room such that no other light source hinders
the POF tendons in order to simulate the real-world application the intensity of light measured by the lux meter other than the neon
condition. Table 2 represents the details of compressive strength lamp as shown in Fig. 9.
testing of cubic specimens with and without POF tendons. From Light passing directly = 180 lx
the results, the percentage reduction in compressive strength was
calculated owing to the inclusion of POF tendons in the concrete. J1
Ƿ¼ × 100% ð1Þ
There was found to be an 11.14% reduction in strength, which is Jo
considerably lower than that reported in the literature (Shakir et al.
2014; Sawant et al. 2014), approximately 35%. This gain in con- where J 1 = light passing through the sample; and J o = light incident
crete strength can be attributed to the increased bond between the on the lux meter probe
POF tendons and the surrounding concrete. It was noticed that the
loss in compressive strength is mainly because of water film ingress 21
at the interface of the tendon and surrounding concrete. This phe- Percentage light passing ¼ × 100% ¼ 11.7% ð2Þ
180
nomenon reduces the bond between concrete and tendon, thereby
resulting in lower strength. However, by roughing the surface of the
Fig. 10 depicts the performance of cubic specimen and its ability
POF tendon, the bond can be improved, which leads to the increase
to transmit red, green, blue, and white light.
in compressive strength. Furthermore, Fig. 8 depicts the cracking
pattern analysis. Cracking was observed along the POF tendons,
indicating the shear bond failure between the tendon and the sur-
rounding concrete. Ultimately, these cracks bridge together and
lead to the final failure of the concrete specimen.

Translucency Testing
A light transmissibility test was performed using light meter
TECPEL 530. The objective of this test was to calculate the per-
centage light passing through the POF tendon. This is an important
piece of information because the proportion of light passing has a
direct impact on the performance of the proposed device during the
day light. It was targeted that the color of light should be visible to
road users during day time. The test was performed in direct sun-
light in order to simulate the real-world conditions, and the light
reading was measured by the light meter (lux). The translucent con-
crete sample was placed between the neon light source and the lux
meter. The probe of the lux meter was placed directly on the fiber
Fig. 9. Light transmissibility test
such that the light intensity at the fiber can be measured. Different

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Fig. 11. Flexure testing of a typical SLS beam specimen

Fig. 10. Transmissibility with red, blue, green, and white light
wet conditions can be improved by roughing the surface of the
SLS. This is easily achievable under working conditions.
Temperature Testing
Flexure Strength Testing
Keeping in mind the extreme temperatures that the road surface is
subjected to during its life cycle, it was decided to conduct a de- Flexure strength testing of the SLS beams was conducted to inves-
tailed temperature testing of the cast specimens. The objective was tigate the response of the beam members under flexural loading.
to investigate the melting point of optical fibers and their perfor- However, it is to be noted that in real-world conditions, the SLS
mance under large temperature variations. In this regard, two cube beam would be embedded in the road surface and would have a
specimens were tested at 225°C for 30 min; because the melting continuous support from the ground beneath. Hence, the moment
temperature of the asphalt is between 160 and 180°C, the specified distribution would be smooth, and the main cause of failure would
temperature was selected as the extreme case of midday pouring of be from shear loading. A detailed numerical analysis was con-
asphalt. The specimen was tested in surface dry conditions in an ducted using ABAQUS to evaluate the effect of impact loading gen-
electric oven. It was seen that the specimens were successfully able erated owing to the moving truck wheel. The SLS was modeled
to sustain high temperatures, and the optical fibers did not melt, under various support conditions to represent the real-world appli-
even after being exposed to 225°C for a long period of time. cation. From the results, it was evident that the proposed SLS per-
formed exceptionally well without any failure (Saleem 2016, 2014;
Because the operational temperature of the road is between 60
Saleem et al. 2013). However, the presented experimental testing
and 80°C, it can be concluded that the proposed device is suitable
serves as the worst-case scenario in the real-world application
for road implementation.
where the entire support material under the SLS is washed away
owing to heavy flooding. Hence, only the end supports of the
Skid Resistance Testing SLS were considered in the experimentation. The results obtained
from the presented testing were used as the minimum load carrying
Skid resistance test was conducted in both saturated surface con- capacity for the numerical material modeling and analysis. Fig. 11
ditions and air dry conditions in order to ascertain the performance depicts the experimental setup and testing of SLS under flexure
of SLS under traffic loading conditions. The standard requirement loading. It was anticipated that without the presence of any
of skid resistance value (SRV) number is 55; Table 3 details the reinforcement and base electronic metal compartment, the beam
testing value for the two beams under wet and dry conditions. SLS would exhibit its minimum load carrying capacity. Three
It was seen that the average SRV under wet conditions was 49, beams of SLS were tested and similar failure was exhibited. From
whereas under dry conditions, it was 65. However, the SRV under the three specimens, the minimum flexure strength of 9.1 kN was
achieved, which was later used for numerical modeling to judge the
stability of the SLS under impact loading generated by the
truck wheel.
Table 3. Skid Resistance Test Results
Test Skid Surface Implementation Strategy
Size (mm) location average condition
The following section details the implementation strategy for the
Beam—1 1,000 × 150 × 150 Left 47.6 Wet
proposed SLS. The section details the implementation procedure
Mid 46.3 Wet
Right 38.6 Wet for application of SLS on flexible pavements, rigid pavement,
Left 64.0 Dry existing infrastructure, and new road construction. In addition,
Mid 60.3 Dry the authors also identify key challenges associated with the appli-
Right 50.0 Dry cation and maintenance of the newly developed technology in real-
Beam—2 1,000 × 150 × 150 Left 44.6 Wet world situations. The objective of the section is to communicate
Mid 40.6 Wet to the readers about the various factors influencing the application
Right 45.0 Wet of such technology. Furthermore, it is to be highlighted that the
Left 51.6 Dry proposed solution of smart road network for improved traffic
Mid 47.3 Dry safety can be implemented in the real world using existing man-
Right 43.0 Dry
power, machinery, and resources, as compared to another solution

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 the development and testing of a new first-of-its-kind smart lane
separator device that can be embedded into the road’s surface
and can be used for active monitoring and communicating useful
information to the road users in order to improve the traffic safety
and flow efficiency. The following conclusions can be drawn from
the presented work:
1. The developed prototype was able to transmit colored light and
was successful in compressive strength testing, temperature test-
ing, and skid resistance testing;
2. The optimum volume of the plastic optical fiber tendon can be
taken as 3% to minimize the loss in compressive strength owing
to fiber replacement; furthermore, the interfacial bond between
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the plastic optical fiber tendon and surrounding concrete can

Fig. 12. Conceptual description of real-world application of SLS
be improved by roughing the surface of plastic optical fiber
tendon; and
3. The developed plastic-optical-fiber-based translucent concrete
was able to sustain compressive loading and hence can be used
where a complete reinventing of roads is proposed, such as solar for flexible and rigid pavements; for architectural and ethical
highways. In addition, the application of such a technology will requirements, the plastic optical fiber tendon ratio can be in-
lead to real job creation, which is another area of concern. Fig. 12 creased to increase the light flow through the translucent
shows the conceptual detailing of the application of smart lane sep- concrete.
arators in a real-world situation. The vertical lines represent data The presented work details an innovative new approach to the
connection channels that connect the SLS assembly, as detailed traffic safety problem and acts as a pilot investigation for future
in Fig. 3, to the central nervous system. The central nervous system researchers for further development. The application of proposed
comprises of the electrical supply, trigger computer, and data stor- smart lane separator will make Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a pioneer
age. The trigger computer is used to calculate the timing for trigger in the Smart Road Network System.
mechanism to change color, data collection, storage, and continu-
ous monitoring. The central nervous system will be equipped with
Acknowledgments
wireless connection to transfer data wirelessly to the monitoring
station. When the pressure sensors sense any sustained pressure, The authors are grateful to the Deanship of Scientific Research
they will transfer the information to the nervous center, which will (DSR) at the University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
direct the embedded LEDs to change color, thereby allowing for for the financial support. The publication is part of the project
real-time feedback to the road users about the hazards laying ahead funded by the DSR under the project ID 2015166.
on the roadway. During the road construction, the data channels
and SLS will be embedded in the top of the base layer followed
by top wearing course. The surface of the SLS will be covered with References
a heat resistance polymer, which will protect it from deterioration
during laying of asphalt. Upon cooling of the asphalt, the polymer ABAQUS version 6.0 [Computer software]. Dassault Systèmes, Waltham,
layer will be removed, exposing the working surface of the SLS. A MA.
Afshinnia, K., and Rangaraju, P. R. (2016). “Impact of combined use of
similar method will be adopted for implementation of the technol-
ground glass powder and crushed glass aggregate on selected properties
ogy for rigid pavements and for upgradation of the existing infra- of Portland cement concrete.” Const. Build. Mater., 117, 263–272.
structure. The bond between the SLS and surrounding road Alejandro, F., Hanna, K., and Fastag, K. (2004). “Design and manufacture
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