Additional information emerged over the weekend about the oft-reported Route 66 Welcome Center solar road that will be installed near Conway, Missouri.
The solar panels will be laid on a 12-by-20-foot section of sidewalk, not road surface, at the Route 66-themed rest area off Interstate 44, reported the Kansas City Star.
“We want to start kind of smaller and just be able to test the initial application and see how it installs,” said James Pflum, resident engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Kansas City District.
“Right now, it’s kind of baby steps. It’s testing the sidewalk and seeing what works and what opportunities we have and what questions we need to answer. But from there, we would go to parking lots and then hopefully to roadways.” […]
The LED lights in the solar panels, for example, could replace striping and other highway markings. The heating elements could melt snow and ice. The panels also can generate energy.
“We are not necessarily looking at if the roads can generate wholesale power, rather whether they can generate enough to power a rest stop,” Pflum said.
The newspaper said MoDOT is expected to reach an agreement this week with Idaho-based Solar Roadways to install and test the solar panels before the new year. The cost will be about $102,000, covered by a federal grant that covers solar projects for research purposes.
MoDOT officials want to see how well Solar Roadways’ panels generate electricity, melt snow and ice, and stand up to punishing freeze-and-thaw conditions.
The Star produced this video about the Conway project:
If the panels work well, MoDOT will consider installing more of them in the parking lot to see how well they do there. After that, the agency presumably will begin looking at real roadways, and a true Route 66 Welcome Center solar road might become a reality.
The project is one of several underway with MoDOT’s Road to Tomorrow Initiative, where the agency in investigating how roads might evolve in the 21st century.
The Route 66 Welcome Center’s design pays homage to the Mother Road, including a neon sign clearly inspired by the Munger Moss Motel sign in Lebanon, Missouri.
UPDATE: A MoDOT news release that came over Monday says construction on the solar sidewalk will begin in late September.
(Image of one of the Solar Roadways panels via Facebook)
Any progress on the solar road project?