¼ Mile (Drayage) Electrified Roadway:
To address the disproportionate emissions that come from short-distance drayage routes, ASPIRE will install a dynamic charging system at the Utah Inland Port to demonstrate the capabilities of electrified port drayage and short-haul fleets. There will be two dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) systems, one co-developed with Purdue, and one utilizing the Electreon DWPT system.
The Electreon DWPT System was first deployed at the Electric Vehicle & Roadway (EVR) research facility in Logan. Following testing at the EVR track, and other Electreon testing sites, a quarter mile of improved and updated system will be deployed within the port boundaries, just outside the highly frequented Union Pacific rail yard.
The USU-Purdue System is being developed to leverage the experience from the ASPIRE team at Purdue University’s pilot deployment and demonstration in partnership with the Indiana Department of Transportation, Cummins, and others. Construction is in progress on a quarter-mile test bed on U.S. Highway 231/U.S. Highway 52 in West Lafayette, Indiana where ASPIRE’s Purdue engineers will provide power to a heavy-duty electric truck, provided by Cummins, Inc., as it travels at highway speeds up to 65 miles per hour. ASPIRE’s Purdue engineers have designed transmitter coils that are installed in the concrete pavement and send power to the truck’s wireless receiver as the truck drives over the electrified roadway. The hope is to electrify a segment of Indiana Interstate in the next four to five years. The results from the INDOT pilot in Indiana will inform the USU-Purdue system that will be deployed at the inland port, building on Purdue’s coil system with research and technology on power systems developed by ASPIRE’s USU engineers.
The results from this pilot will provide valuable data and insights for further electrification planning, including the development of Utah’s I-15 corridor project with the DOE, the Utah Intelligent Electrification Action Plan, and other future projects.
What Is Drayage
Drayage is the transportation of shipping containers by truck to its final destination. Drayage is often part of a longer overall move, such as from a ship to a warehouse. Some research defines it specifically as “a truck pickup from or delivery to a seaport, border point, inland port, or intermodal terminal with both the trip origin and destination in the same urban area”.