DIR Centre-West
Presentation
The Interdepartmental Road Directorate (DIR) Centre-West is a department of the French government ( Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion) responsible for the maintenance, operation and development of the A20 motorway and the national roads of the Centre-West region (i.e. those crossing the regions of Nouvelle Aquitaine, Centre-Val-de-Loire and part of Pays de la Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Occitanie).
Under the authority of the Prefect of Gironde, its scope of intervention covers 1,150km of roads and crosses 12 departments. In addition to the A20, its network includes the following roads: RN 21, RN 141, RN 142, RN 145, RN 147, RN 151, RN 149, RN 249, RN 221, RN 520, RN 1021 et RN 1113.
Projects / Use Cases
In order to prepare for the arrival of the vehicle of the future, which will likely be autonomous and connected, the DIR Centre West has embarked on the InDiD (Digital Infrastructure of Tomorrow) project, which aims to equip its network with dedicated terminals (known as “RSU”, roadside units) that will enable direct and automatic communication between the road infrastructure and the vehicles using it.
For the first phase of deployment, 17 RSUs are planned:
11 on the A20 motorway, distributed as follows:
- 5 in Corrèze on the joint A20/A89 section and the Noailles tunnel south of Brive-la-Gaillarde
- 2 on the Limoges urban ring road
- 2 near Châteauroux
- 2 near the Vierzon toll plaza
6 sur le reste du réseau routier, à savoir :
- 2 on the RN 147 – north-east Poitiers bypass
- 4 on the RN 145: 1 unit at the intersection with the A20, 2 near Guéret and 1 unit near Montluçon, in particular for detecting and warning wrong-way traffic.
At the same time, we plan to equip 5 of our vehicles with special terminals (known as OBUo, on-board units in the operator’s vehicles), in particular to enable the measurement and automatic probing of meteorological data so we can make the best possible adjustments to our operations during the winter period.
The project is estimated to cost €370k, 50% of which will be funded by the European Union and 50% by the French government.
Find out more about the projects:
Timeline
The terminals will be deployed between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, with commissioning scheduled for 2023. At the same time, the DIR Centre West will be working on the development of a new test use case, the automatic detection (via the C-ITS) of wrong-way traffic.
Generic contacts - services
Cyril LAUQUIN: Deputy Head of the Policy and Technical Department (SPT): 05 87 50 60 71
Jean-Michel DESBORDES: Head of the Engineering, Operations and Road Safety Office (SPT/BIESR): 05 55 30 90 81