ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a $6.4-million grant to improve data collection and make real-time traffic updates available to highway users along the Interstate 95 corridor.

The I-95 Corridor Coalition, consisting of transportation departments and tolling authorities from Maine to Florida along I-95, will incorporate an existing data-collection system with other technologies to make traffic updates available via the Web, at information centers, and eventually to drivers by mobile phone.

"This will be extremely helpful, particularly for commercial vehicles that are using the corridor," said George Schoener, the coalitions executive director.

"If you want to, you could just zero in on one of the states, you could look at a region, and look at whats going on with traffic time."

The I-95 Corridor Coalition already is collecting data from GPS-enabled vehicles in a 1,500-mile stretch from North Carolina to New Jersey. The grant will help with processing and getting real-time updates to drivers.

The grant will fund a number of things, Schoener said, including speed-measuring devices placed on special cones in construction zones.

"What those cones do is theyre able to capture speeds before a work zone, within a work zone and when youre leaving a work zone," he said.

Data will be transmitted to a firm contracted to develop a website and distribute to transportation agencies along the corridor for their use.

Updates in North Carolina will be linked to the states 5-1-1 information phone system. The Virginia Department of Transportation will incorporate data into live video feeds of traffic movement in typically congested areas.

The Baltimore-Washington International Airport soon will have kiosks that will provide I-95 traffic updates as people leave the airport, Schoener said.

The coalition hopes to attract a mobile communications carrier by early next year to provide updates to mobile phones or other hand-held communication devices. At this point, Schoener said its not clear whether the mobile-phone updates will require a paid subscription.

A U.S. Department of Transportation spokeswoman said the goal for the grant is to reduce congestion and make highways safer.