Traficon has been recently contracted to provide 70 VIP-IP video image processing boards for installation in the Dartford tunnel, in the UK.
The technology will be installed in collaboration with VITAL Technology Ltd and will provide extensive automatic incident detection (AID) capabilities, including the detection of stopped vehicles and smoke detection.
As part of the European Union Directive 2004/54/EC, concerning minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network, England’s Highways Agency is installing a CCTV-based AID system on the Dartford Crossing.
After a thorough selection process by the main contractor, UK-based company Vital Technology Ltd, Traficon was selected as the preferred AID provider. The project is due for completion in September 2013.
The Dartford – Thurrock River Crossing is one of Europe’s most heavily used crossings and complex traffic management systems. Spanning the Thames between Dartford and Thurrock, the Crossing forms a vital link in the M25, one of Europe’s busiest motorways.
An average of 140,000 vehicles a week, pass through the Dartford – Thurrock River Crossing, which comprises two dual-lane tunnels, carrying traffic to the north and a four-lane cable-stayed bridge carrying traffic to the south.
Avoiding secondary accidents
"This award demonstrates Traficon’s strong market position in video-based AID systems and our client’s confidence in our solutions. By detecting incidents fast, secondary accidents can be avoided and traffic congestion reduced dramatically," said Sukhdev Bhogal, business development director at Traficon.
"In Traficon, we have chosen a technology that is both reliable and industry-proven. Moreover, the Traficon people have proven to be very responsive to our needs and are always willing to go that extra mile to provide best support," comments Paul Ward, director at Vital Technology Ltd.
Incident detection on network cameras
The Traficon VIP-IP is a multi-functional video image processor for traffic control using network cameras. It integrates automatic incident detection, data collection, vehicle presence detection, digital recording of pre and post-incident video sequences and streaming video in one board for a variety of traffic management applications, such as tunnels, highways and bridges.
Traficon’s VIP-IP board makes use of field-proven Traficon algorithms that were implemented in other boards, such as VIP-T video detection board for analogue cameras. This ensures high reliability and a low false alarm rate of this new IP version right from the start.
Data, events and alarms generated by the VIP-IP detector boards are handled by the Traficon Management System, known as Flux. The main goal of Flux is to manage and control all traffic information generated by these various detectors and to make it useful, meaningful and relevant to the user.
Trusted provider
Traficon has been awarded a number of AID tunnel projects in the UK over the past few years, with the Tyne, Hatfield and Medway Tunnels its finest examples. In 2011, the company successfully commissioned 40 VIP-T AID detector boards in the northbound Blackwall tunnel, which is set to be a crucial traffic gateway towards the Olympic stadium in East London during the upcoming summer Olympic Games.
