Meet ATD (ATtikes Diadromes SA)

Attiki Odos, a modern 70-kilometre motorway, connects the airport with the centre of Athens, major urban axes and national roads, as well as multimodal transport networks such as the port of Piraeus, the railway network and the metro.  

Attikes Diadromes (ATD), is the company responsible for the operation and maintenance of Attiki Odos from March 2001 (for a part of the motorway) and July 2004 (for all the motorway) until 5 October 2024 – and from then on is the company responsible for the regular maintenance of the motorway. ATD since 2022 faced significant challenges such as:   

• Lack of real-time monitoring and traffic updates: The lack of immediate updates on incidents, lane closures and traffic congestion made it difficult to make timely decisions to ensure smooth traffic flow and take any necessary action.  

• Limited analytical capabilities: Previous systems in use lacked the modern data analytics required for traffic forecasting, understanding traffic patterns and optimizing traffic flow.  

• Management and implementation of traffic regulations: The design and implementation of appropriate traffic interventions require the necessary information to be available so that the work can be carried out in the correct sequence, ensuring the least possible disruption to the transport network.  

 Initially ATD relied on approximately 500 twin inductive loops embedded in the highway pavement for traffic data collection, creating multiple operational challenges that impacted daily business operations. Since 2023 ATD implemented an innovative IoT solution, utilizing cutting-edge sensors, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced data analysis. Furthermore. the IoT data connected to advanced Business Intelligence (BI) methodologies, ensuring rapid data/information processing and accurate measurements for faster and more effective decision-making.  

Can you provide an overview of your role and involvement in the DELPHI project? 

The DELPHI EU Research Programme aims to address the strategic integration of passenger and freight transport into a unified system. In this respect for the Athens case, ATD provided  a good number of incidents data input related to delays so that WINGS can develop an algorithm to forecast congestion situations based on real and simulate backward propagation of congestion based on parameters that can be estimated on real and suggests to the driver the time saved by selecting the best exit (near the congestion, knowing it spreads backwards) finding the best exit so that the speed does not fall below a specific threshold. 

How do existing data processing systems hinder the development in innovative ways to predict delays post-incident and to propose multi-modal alternatives? 

Current governance and regulatory frameworks are often structured around a strict separation between passenger and freight transport, both at the policy and operational levels. Therefore, there is a need for critical infrastructure, particularly in an urban big city environment to share real-time data with the aim of responding, following a major incident, the earliest thus limiting any delays by proposing the optimum multi-modal option to the user. 

What are the main challenges related to data availability and collection when integrating alternative transport systems, and how does DELPHI address them? 

To cope with limited availability, fragmentation, and lack of harmonization of data across the passenger and freight transport sectors DELPHI research teams must rely to data agnostic methodologies so that even though the information is typically collected by different sources and stakeholders using diverse systems and standards, a unified, real-time view of mobility patterns can be developed. In addition, DELPHI should promote the use, as much as possible, of harmonized data specifications and reference information models, enabling secure and consistent data sharing across systems.  

How do you see the integration of alternative transport systems evolving beyond the scope of DELPHI, and what role can ATD play in this transformation? 

Gradually AI-driven logistics, and real-time multimodal optimization such as the one provided by ATD to WINGS for their part in the DELPHI research should be used more often so that in the future interoperable architectures, secure data-sharing mechanisms, and governance models that enable such systems to scale are developed. Progressively with expertise from large-scale pilot projects effective algorithms can be developed by the researchers with immediate deployment to the real world of urban infrastructure.  

Is there any other aspect of the DELPHI project or ATD’s involvement you would like to highlight? 

It should be highlighted that in addition to the development, through the use of ADT combined AI and BI real-time data across the length of a busy urban motorway, on board units (OBUs) can be employed to the patrol teams to record and give structural integrity data capable of helping both the regular and the major maintenance processes of a motorway. ATD has helped WINGS to load such cameras to two of their patrolling vehicles with the aim of developing a robust tool to identify and categorize the significance of structural integrity issues along the motorway making the maintenance process smoother and more efficient. 

ATD are excited to have provided valuable input to the researchers of DELPHI with the Athens case and hopefully there will be soon more opportunities, in new private motorways currently under construction to contribute, through their members, to this ongoing journey of integration of services to the benefit of the end users.