It’s the answer to a problem Central Florida’s toll road operators have been trying to solve since the highways first opened decades ago: How do they know when and how badly their crash barricades are damaged?
It’s critical those barricades are in good shape to protect the next driver that crashes into them.
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At every toll booth and off ramp, there is some version of an attenuator – a crash-absorption barrier made of soft metal, plastic boxes and even barrels of water.
The attenuator is designed to stop or at least slow down a driver upon coming into contact with the attenuator before the driver smashes into the immovable concrete block of a toll booth or highway divider.
According to Central Florida Expressway Authority Manager of Community Engagement Brian Hutchings, they discovered drivers sometimes hit the attenuators in the middle of the night, sometimes in the middle of nowhere and sometimes it’s only the driver that knows about the crash.
So how is the Expressway Authority supposed to know the attenuator has been damaged, other than a time-consuming visual inspection?
And how is the Expressway Authority supposed to know the attentuator will work the next time a driver hits it?
Hutchings showed News 6 a hockey puck-sized internet-connected sensor known as Pi-Lit.
“This is our new impact detection device that is being installed throughout areas along our Expressway system,” Hutchings said. “So it has sensors that will detect the impact and the vibration and will send out real time to us via text, email and through a website portal, both the location time and then also the severity.”
Hutchings said the inventor of the Pi-Lit explained he came up with the idea after a crash in California. A driver hit an attenuator there, damaged it and 11 days went by. In that time, the California Department of Transportation did not fix that barricade and another driver smashed into the damaged attenuator and died.
“This helps us know in real time when a barrier has been impacted and then we can dispatch our maintenance crews to make those repairs quickly, as opposed to waiting for a visual inspection, which could take a day, maybe longer,” Hutchings said.
Hutchings said thanks to the Pi-Lit sensor, any damaged attentuator will be repaired as soon as possible and “it could potentially save lives.”
The Expressway Authority is installing 135 sensors system-wide which includes on the cable guardrail along the edge of the Beachline S.R. 528.
Hutchings said if the Expressway Authority determines the Pi-Lit sensors are getting results, it will buy more and install more.
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