The Federal Highway Administration disbursed more than $8 million in Accelerated Innovation Deployment or AID demonstration program grants to state departments of transportation and local governments in 10 states on January 21.

[Above photo via the City of Orlando]

The agency said those grants aim to help speed up bridge project completion times, improve traffic management, plus accelerate the use of new transportation tools and technologies to improve roadway safety in: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and North Dakota.

“These funds will help support our state and local partners across the country in their efforts to deliver more resilient roads, bridges, and highways for the traveling public,” said Nicole Nason, FHWA administrator, in a statement.

For example, the North Dakota DOT is using its $241,687 AID grant to deploy a robot-driven crash truck known as an “autonomous attenuator” to beef up traffic protection for highway crews when conducting routine roadway maintenance activities.

Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Transportation and the City of Orlando are jointly using their $1 million AID grant to improve “traffic signalization” at roadway intersections; part of a larger project that seeks to intelligently manage transportation flows around the city’s downtown area.