Edge-Based Work Zone Monitoring for Safe and Intelligent Rural Infrastructure Preservation
Rural highway work zones present elevated safety risks due to high-speed traffic, limited visibility, and dynamic construction activity, posing dangers to drivers and workers while also threatening the long-term integrity of infrastructure projects. To address these challenges, this project develops a simulation-based framework to design and evaluate a mesh sensor network capable of real-time incident detection and alerting. The proposed system integrates low-cost sensors with edge computing and self-organizing LoRaWAN (Long Range radio-carried Wide Area Network) communication to detect vehicle intrusions, equipment-lane conflicts, and worker proximity violations. Simulations will combine microscopic traffic modeling (SUMO), construction activity simulation (ROS/Gazebo), and wireless network emulation (NS-3) to enable synchronized, multi-domain testing. The system's detection performance, message latency, localization accuracy, and communication reliability will be assessed across varied work zone scenarios and sensor configurations. Comparative evaluation against fixed-point detection, manual reporting, and cloud-based mesh networks will quantify the benefits of edge processing and network resilience. Outputs include detection benchmarks, design guidelines, and synthetic datasets of safety-critical interactions. This research advances USDOT strategic goals by improving rural safety, enabling intelligent infrastructure transformation, and preserving critical transportation assets through early detection of hazards that could disrupt construction schedules or damage facilities. The simulation framework and findings will be shared with state DOTs to support future deployment of proactive, intelligent monitoring systems.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $209,827.00
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Contract Numbers:
69A3552348308
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Center for Transformative Infrastructure Preservation and Sustainability
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota United States 58108-6050 -
Performing Organizations:
Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management
Laramie, WY United States 82071 -
Principal Investigators:
Song, Yu
Zhang, Chengyi
- Start Date: 20260828
- Expected Completion Date: 20291130
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program
- Source Data: CTIPS-075
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Rural highways; Sensors; Simulation; Vehicle detectors; Work zone safety
- Subject Areas: Construction; Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 02002024
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Center for Transformative Infrastructure Preservation and Sustainability
- Contract Numbers: 69A3552348308
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Sep 14 2026 2:12PM