DENVER (KDVR) — The Colorado Department of Transportation has installed a system of sensors and traffic lights to help facilitate rush-hour traffic on the ramps to Interstate 25.

They are called acceleration ramps, stretches of road that allow a motorist to get up to speed as they merge onto the highway.

During peak drive times in the Denver metro, however, there is not a lot of accelerating going on.

“The problem is very heavy congestion on I-25. We all know that and we all live that every day,” Tamara Rollison, a CDOT spokesperson, said.

Gleaning inspiration from Australia, the Colorado Department of Transportation has launched the Smart 25 Pilot Project. It all has to do with the ramp meter, that light on the ramp that tells you when you can go.

“What we are piloting is a smarter type of system that would be activated based on what is really going on out there on I-25,” Rollison said.

Sensors have been installed on ramps onto northbound I-25 from Ridgegate Parkway up to University Boulevard. They will measure the number of cars and their speed.

As traffic bunches up, they go to work.

“We are testing it in weather conditions, during different times of the year, so we have the data that we need to determine is this working,” Rollison said.

If CDOT decides to keep the Smart 25, it’ll be the first time a system like this has been used in North America.