Highway of the future in the works for 2016

By 2016, Korea plans to build a “smart highway” that will enable cars to travel safely at speeds of up to 160 kilometers (99.4 miles) per hour, helped by elaborate curve designs, new pavement materials and real-time traffic information systems.
Currently, express highways in Korea have speed limits of 100 to110 kilometers per hour.
The government decided on the plan in a meeting of related ministers yesterday. Kim Woo-sik, deputy prime minister and minister of science and technology, presided over the meeting.
According to the ministry, the government will spend 149.4 billion won ($161.5 million) to develop a smart highway package of information, automobile and road construction technologies and to build the first express highway by 2016.
The first smart express highway will be constructed at a length of 30 to 50 kilometers as a kind of test bed, the ministry said.
Then longer smart express highways will be built using new road structures, designs and materials, the ministry said.
“In particular, new pavement technology will be developed to reduce noise from friction between car tires and the road surface and to enhance drainage,” a spokesman for the ministry said.
He added that related information technology would also be developed to update drivers on the flow of traffic and help them avoid accidents through satellite communications. Information technology will play a critical role in safety on the smart highway, the ministry said.
A centralized organization to manage the building of the road will be set up within the month and research will start within this year.
In the meeting, the science-related ministers also reviewed a plan to develop a small commercial reactor that could cater to growing global demand for atomic power.
The System Integrated Modular Advanced Reactor, or Smart, will have a thermal capacity of 660 megawatts, the Science Ministry said.
The ministry said up to 10 Smart reactors could be sold abroad by 2030. Korea is now in talks to sell nuclear reactors or components to Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

By Moon So-young Staff Writer [symoon@joongang.co.kr]