Colas tests its Flowell smart route in Vendée

Pedestrian crossings that light up during the crossing of children, opening or closing of a traffic lane depending on the traffic, delivery place transforming into a parking space at night or creation of ephemeral drop-off near a school ... This road, composed of slabs placed directly on the roadway and including a light-emitting diode (LED) lamp system, aims to replace the traditional marking on the ground to make it more suitable for needs .

In the testing phase for several weeks on the group's campus in the Yvelines, a portion of this road has just been installed in the municipality of Montréverd (Vendée).

A school bus stop using this technology has been set up to secure the waiting and the rise of the students. "It is a system that will turn on during bus passage times to highlight the zebra and signal to motorists that it is a potential danger zone", explains Philippe Raffin, Technical Director, Research and Development at Colas. Everything is supplied by portions of photovoltaic roads installed nearby.

"The site is managed by a parking meter," continues Philippe Raffin, "but we also have remote control systems". According to Colas, dynamic road signage can also be activated using pedotactile sensors, thermal camera detection or an infrared transmitter.

Presented at the last Mayors' Fair in France, in Paris at the end of November, Flowell, co-invented by Colas and CEA Tech, will be tested for at least a year in Vendée.

The system should also be deployed in other pilot sites in France for other applications. A potential marketing will not intervene before "18 to 24 months", according to Bernard Sala, the assistant director of Colas for which one of the main assets of Flowell is "to adapt the marking to the use and not to ask destruction of existing infrastructure. "

A year ago, the construction giant's subsidiary inaugurated the first solar road, Wattway, in Tourouvre (Orne) before experiments at a dozen sites in France, but also in North America. A portion has also just been inaugurated at the foot of a building in downtown Tokyo.