Professors at Indiana’s Purdue University have embedded piezoelectric sensors into sections of interstate throughout Indiana to improve the maintenance and safety of America’s infrastructure — otherwise known as highways, roads and bridges.

Embedded into the concrete of highways in Indiana, the sensors autonomously monitor and collect data about the conditions of the road in real time. Vibrations in the concrete are translated into electrical signals that are then interpreted and analyzed by Purdue software. This data drives decisions about opening recently paved roads to traffic or making repairs to deteriorating roadways.

For instance, the sensors could notify transportation engineers when a recently poured roadway could be safely opened up to traffic. Concrete curing can take several hours after it has been poured. Opening up recently poured roadways too soon might reduce the life expectancy of the road and result in the increased cost of maintenance, while waiting too long to open up the roadway to traffic could lend to increased congestion due to road closures.

According to the Purdue team, these sensors could potentially remedy such issues, accurately communicating to transportation engineers when the roads are safe enough to open up to traffic.

Because experts estimate that roughly 39% of bridges in the U.S. are older than their intended life spans, the Purdue team aims to make such infrastructure “smart” in a bid to stave off costly maintenance and repairs of deteriorating infrastructure. Going forward, the team intends to embed sensors into more of the concrete roadways throughout Indiana.

For more information on the embedded sensors, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of Purdue University.