Construction on the connected and automated vehicle (CAV) corridor pilot project in Wayne County is complete and testing will begin soon.
According to the Michigan Department of Transportation, crews have finished installing digital and physical infrastructure for the CAV corridor, which is on westbound I-94 between Belleville and Rawsonville roads.
The lane will remain open to all users for the immediate future.
Testing will be completed during off-peak hours – 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays – with dedicated test vehicles. During testing, advance signs will warn drivers that the lane is closed to regular testing. Outside of testing, the lane will be available for all users.
According to MDOT, the vision for the corridor is to create CAV lanes to help increase the safety, efficiency, resilience and operations of roadways.
CAV lanes, according to the company, will provide a variety of benefits. The plan would be to have shuttles, that can bring people into areas, allow autonomous vehicles using the lanes to communicate with each other to move faster and more safely, but will also accommodate mixed traffic.
If all goes well, Cavnue said the information they learn could also be used to deploy CAV lanes to corridors in Southeast Michigan. and "potentially grow a network of CAV corridors connecting Southeast Michigan."
