Inauguration of Transpolis, a real-scale urban laboratory dedicated to mobility

Transpolis, an 80-hectare research and experimentation laboratory, opened in Saint- Maurice-de-Rémens near Lyon, France. As a longstanding stakeholder, Colas saw the possible benefits of this multidisciplinary project as early as 2011, as part of its drive to develop new generations of safe, sustainable, autonomous and connected mobility solutions, one of the Group's strategic priorities.

Transpolis is a real-scale urban laboratory dedicated to mobility and innovative transport systems. It is unique in Europe, a place to experiment and simulate 1:1 scale: urban mobility demonstrators: energy, networks and telecoms, road and urban infrastructures, autonomous and connected vehicles, etc. New equipment has already been installed, including street furniture, communicating lights, intelligent lighting, bus stops, etc.

Transpolis will enable Colas teams to test the Group's new solutions in real conditions, in particular, potential new uses for its Flowell dynamic marking solution: the study of the behavior of autonomous and connected vehicles in relation to dynamic luminous marking, the introduction of artificial intelligence to anticipate soft mobility flows, and more.

The first dynamic marking solution has been installed, illustrating Colas' combined expertise and technology-based approach: a crosswalk with effect lines, activated in the presence of pedestrians, highlighting the need to stop the vehicle. Based on Flowell technology, this demonstrator will study the behavior of drivers and pedestrians in real conditions.

Bernard Sala, Colas' Deputy Managing Director, Foresight, Development and Research, explains: "This ecosystem, which is the first of its kind in Europe, will enable us to efficiently meet our engineers’ needto carry out full-scale reliability testing and behavioral studies required to validate the solutions developed in our products laboratories. In this sense, Transpolis creates a real link between the Colas Group's Campus for Science and Techniques and the industrial development of the technologiestested.”