KICT 한국건설기술연구원

 

On December 5, KICT held an opening ceremony for the Center for Road weather Proving Ground (CRPG) at Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do. The CRPG is a testing facility that can recreate hazardous weather conditions such as snow, rain, and fog. Using advanced technologies, the facility aims to reduce road damage, which has increased in recent years due to the frequency and intensity of abnormal weather events in Korea. The CRPG was selected as a national R&D project in 2014 and received a total of KRW 14.9 billion (government funds of KRW 12.4 billion) in R&D funding. The center is situated on a site measuring 700,000 m² in Yeoncheon and was built with support from Yeoncheon-gun and the Ministry of National Defense.

 

The testing facility can generate weather conditions such as snow, rain, and fog for visibility testing, search on lane departure sensor testing, and more. The facility can also adjust lighting and noise levels and reproduce road situations for reduced facility performance evaluations, road pavement experiments, piezoelectric experiments, and deicing material and performance evaluations (etc.).

 

The CRPG will be utilized to support the development of cutting-edge traffic safety technologies such as smart roads and autonomous vehicles; the enaction/amendment of road facility standards through simulated road experiments; and R&D verification in regard to road facilities.