WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — A Civil Engineering professor at Purdue University may have come up with a permanent solution to the pesky problem of potholes.
The Indiana Department of Transportation approached Luna Lieu in 2017 to help figure out a solution.
She developed a sensor.
The sensor is embedded in new concrete or asphalt when it is poured while repaving roads.
It then keeps track of the material strength and uploads real-time data about the strength of a roadway to an information cloud, where INDOT workers can review and study accordingly.
INDOT says it has used these sensors on a trial basis on several interstates around Indiana for the past couple of years.
Both Lieu and INDOT say the sensor technology has worked so well that other state highway departments – such as those in Utah, Tennessee, and Colorado – have indicated they would like to start using it once it’s rolled out on a nationwide scale.
(Story by Bill Remeika)
