Siemens is supplying an operations management and traffic control system to the value of around EUR57 million for 29 tunnels on a new 350 km-long 4-lane road from Espiye to Sarp/Batumi at the border with Georgia along the Turkish coast of the Black Sea.
The route will be one of the most progressive stretches of road in the world in terms of its traffic management and control equipment. Handover of the turnkey project to the operator, the Turkish freeway management authority KGM (Karayollari Genel Müdürlügü), is scheduled to take place in 18 months.
Siemens will be installing a central control station with seven control substations as well as the entire technical infrastructure with traffic control, fire protection, fire fighting, power supply, lighting, and ventilation systems as well as communication and camera monitoring equipment with automatic event detection.
The aim is to relieve the pressure on the existing winding coast road caused, above all, by the increasing amount of long distance heavy goods traffic, and thus improve the traffic situation on this section of the coast. Twenty-three tunnels with a total length of more than 28 kilometres will be equipped by Siemens and the other six existing tunnels with a length of more than nine kilometres will be integrated in the overall structure.
Control centre
The heart of the new traffic management and control system from Siemens is the integrated Sitraffic ITCC operations and traffic control centre which will be built in Trabzon, one of the main towns in the area. From there, all the control and monitoring processes of the 29 tunnels will be coordinated. The centre will not only handle the traffic but will also look after the lighting, ventilation, power distribution and supply as well as the fire detection and fire fighting aspects. Emergency generators, pump stations and uninterruptible power supply equipment will ensure permanent operation. Seven control substations, which can control their sections completely independently if necessary, will be linked up to the control centre.
Siemens will also be responsible for building the transformer rooms and the main control station and substations. The concept of a main traffic control centre was chosen so that optimum use could be made of the available local specialists as they are rare in this thinly populated region.
Video detection
In more than 20 tunnels, especially the longer ones, an automatic video detection system will be installed. It will be able to detect any possible obstacles and hindrances, vehicles that have stopped or are driving in the wrong direction as well as pedestrians, sudden vehicle speed changes and traffic jams. Foreign bodies on the road or smoke will also be detected and alarm systems will be activated. A total of 353 fixed and 44 movable cameras will monitor the tunnels.
Other systems
Apart from all this, the system analyses a wide variety of data such as the rise in the level of carbon monoxide, impairments to visibility or a change in the conditions outside the tunnels. It then automatically activates previously stored operating plans in order to respond appropriately to the given situation. The lighting in the tunnels can be adapted and the ventilation system can be controlled in order to ensure a safe and pleasant trip.
A communication system will enable safety and warning information for car drivers to be displayed on variable traffic signs. General announcements will be made over 825 loudspeakers.
The automation system will make sure that the ventilation, lighting and traffic control systems function quickly and reliably in the event of a fire. 140 turbine blowers alone will be installed. Fire protection rooms, including dry fire extinguishers, will also be installed. Within the framework of the project, 275 kilometres of fibre optic cables and more than 1,500 kilometres of copper cable will be laid. Click here and tr/20. Visit www.siemens.com/traffic 08/08.
