Sanral's intelligent transportation system wins SAICE award

Issued by SANRAL
Johannesburg, Jul 27, 2016

The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (Sanral) has bagged an award from the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) for its Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) in KwaZulu-Natal.

The system is designed to optimise traffic flow, improve road safety and enhance traffic management on the road network.

The Sanral Eastern Region received the SAICE Pietermaritzburg Branch Award for Technical Excellence in Civil Engineering for a project greater than R250 million.

Sanral's ITS in KwaZulu-Natal covers the N2 freeway (Prospecton Interchange to Watson Highway Interchange) and the N3 Freeway (Durban to Market Road, Pietermaritzburg).

Kersen Naidoo, Sanral Eastern Region ITS project manager, said the system is a ground breaking project that has seen the confluence of several engineering disciplines to develop advanced transportation solutions for the KwaZulu-Natal region.

He said the N3 freeway between Durban and Pietermaritzburg carries very high traffic volumes, with some sections exceeding 100 000 vehicles per day.

"The ITS was developed to optimise traffic flow, improve road safety and improve traffic management. The road safety aspects are meant to mitigate against crashes by timeously warning motorists of incidents and to enable fast and coordinated response to incidents.

"Professionals from the civil, traffic, transportation, electrical and electronic engineering sectors fused together this excellent system, that's not only built to monitor traffic but to collect vast amounts of traffic data that is then used to study travel patterns, predict accident hotspots and inform road users in real-time, of the prevailing traffic conditions," said Naidoo.

The Sanral ITS in KZN comprises 146 cameras, 60 radar vehicle detection units and 26 variable message signs. These are linked via fibre optic cable and integrated into an Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) software platform at the Sanral Traffic Management Centre in Pietermaritzburg. The cameras enable trained traffic management operators to capture real time video footage of the network, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

When incidents occur on the freeway, resulting in disruption of traffic flow, it is important that motorists are notified as soon as possible. Traffic information is disseminated in real time through various means from the ITS - via electronic variable message signs on the route, the Sanral i-traffic Web site (www.i-traffic.co.za), via Twitter (@i_trafficKZN) and also via e-mail and SMS.

"Informed motorists now have the tools to make better travel decisions and can plan their travel more effectively. This has been one of the major benefits of the ITS.

Another key aspect of the ITS is rapid notification of the incident response services. The primary responders to incidents on KZN roads are the Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI), the South African Police Services, Metro Police Services and Emergency Medical Rescue Services. RTI Officers are co-located at the Sanral TMC to enable rapid response to incidents.

Logashri Sewnarain, Sanral Eastern Region manager, said the SAICE Award for Technical Excellence in Civil Engineering for the ITS was due recognition for a system that has such great potential to saves lives.

"On ITS managed networks, the safety of motorists is greatly improved by the quicker detection and verification of traffic incidents, faster alerting of police and emergency services, and the provision of real time warning of incidents.

"For the KZN ITS, incident detection and verification of times are impressive, with the average combined detection and verification time at under 3 minutes.

"A freeway can have several lanes but a single incident such as a breakdown or collision can have major impact on traffic flow in both directions,"

"The benefits of the ITS directly result in safer roads, savings in travel times and fuel costs, as well as contributing to a cleaner environment," said Sewnarain.

The ITS was developed to optimise traffic flow, improve road safety and improve traffic management. The road safety aspects are meant to mitigate against crashes by timeously warning motorists of incidents and to enable fast and coordinated response to incidents.

The Sanral ITS in KZN comprises 146 cameras, 60 radar vehicle detection units and 26 variable message signs. These are linked via fibre optic cable and integrated into an Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) software platform at the Sanral Traffic Management Centre in Pietermaritzburg. The cameras enable trained traffic management operators to capture real time video footage of the network, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Traveller Information:

One of the most tangible benefits to the road user is the provision of real time traffic information which assists in pre-trip planning and en route travel decisions. The TMC posts an average of 700 traffic messages on strategically located VMS on the network. In addition, posting traffic information via social media (Twitter) has been very popular. Messages are posted via the @i_trafficKZN twitter account, which currently has around 23 000 followers.