Chilean motorway concession Autopista Costa Arauco has reported a remarkable 42% reduction in KSI casualties after deploying an AI data analytics solution for traffic management.

The road safety efforts, comprising a suite of traditional and cutting-edge technological measures, have led to an equally notable 34% reduction in all crashes over the first 12 months since implementing the holistic road safety approach. The deployment complements the extensive work that the operator has been carrying out over the last few years, ostensibly to drastically lower the number of accidents on the 89km route.

Autopista Costa Arauco is a major motorway in Southern Chile that connects the city of Concepción and its ports with the Arauco area. It is a crucial route for the inextricably linked cellulose and logging industries, and for the economic vitality of the Biobío region in general. The motorway passes through a diverse landscape, including mountains and coastal areas and with that variety of topography comes a range of challenging weather conditions, such as thick winter fog and precipitation. Globalvia are responsible for the design, improvement, construction, operation, maintenance and financing of the concession within a traditional tolling system scheme.

Autopista Costa Arauco’s overarching goal was to improve road safety without making a significant investment in additional hardware. Although the concessionaire took responsibility for a road that had already achieved great results, reducing the number of road deaths by a factor of six, improvements were still sought. 

As part of their holistic approach they looked for a solution that in addition to not incurring significant expenditure would deliver everything they were looking for, namely improved situational awareness and risk modelling. 

The proactive operator, in addition to using traditional tools such as improvements to road surfacing and road drainage, took advantage of the available road traffic-related data, from the likes of Waze and Google Maps, plus current weather data, and integrated it into the AI platform. This allowed the operator to understand real-time traffic conditions and risky segments on its highways and to take appropriate preventative measures that resulted in road safety and service level improvements.  

Proactive traffic incident detection can also significantly reduce the occurrence of secondary crashes. According to the US Federal Highway Administration the likelihood of such an incident occurring increases by almost 3% with each passing post-crash minute that the primary accident continues being hazardous.

The AI-powered solution they chose, Lanternn by Valerann^TM, ingests data from the existing roadside infrastructure, floating data sources and weather information to provide an accurate and comprehensive real-time overview on road traffic situation and road accidents risk modelling on a single pane of glass. 

The  new system leverages the AI capabilities and predictive methods of the AI to identify risk situations and conditions, meaning that the road operator is  now able to take proactive, preventive actions . For  when black ice was predicted on the highway, the technology allowed the road operator to perform preventive activities to avoid accidents and ultimately save lives, demonstrating the value of their innovative our approach.