The City of Fredericksburg, VA has announced its partnership with the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) for the creation of a smart Riverfront Park. Riverfront Park is anticipated to open in the summer of 2021.
“In 2018, City Council directed staff in their Priority #8 to build Riverfront Park after more than a decade of work. To deliver other Council Priorities at the same time, we have been very focused on embedding “Smart Communities” thinking within our design and construction – with success,” said City Manager Tim Baroody.
With a $75,000 grant from CIT, the city is beginning to design and implement the infrastructure with smart technology to be installed in phases. Phase one will provide public Wi-Fi in the park and park security cameras, also. The infrastructure is designed for future growth, and could later include a digital information kiosk, a public performance stage, environmental sensors for air quality and river flooding, and sensors for parking availability or crowd counts.
CIT’s CTO, David Ihrie stated, “The partnership with the City of Fredericksburg is an outstanding example of our statewide smart community approach of ‘community-driven’ innovation.” The City invited us to collaborate early in the process to help ensure the inclusion of key infrastructure elements in the park to allow for future growth. This project demonstrates that the benefits of ‘smart’ technology are approachable for communities of all sizes throughout Virginia and is a model that other communities can follow.”
CIT works on developing next-generation technologies in Virginia through investments and creating partnerships between new technology companies and customers.