Siemens Mobility
Siemens Mobility to provide maintenance and development of the existing traffic management systems in Northern Ireland. Credit: Lucas Gallone / Unsplash.

Siemens Mobility has secured a contract from Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure (DfI) to upgrade the department’s existing traffic management systems.

This four-year deal will include maintenance of the existing intelligent transportation systems (ITS). The new agreement replaces the previous contract that expired on 31 January.

Furthermore, the company will be responsible for the ongoing delivery of a dedicated IP communications network to connect 328 urban traffic control (UTC) sites to the central Siemens Mobility UTC and Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique (SCOOT) system.

Siemens Mobility UK intelligent traffic systems business managing director Wilke Reints said: “Having worked closely with the DfI team for more than 25 years, we are delighted to have been awarded this new contract to not only continue, but also build on our work together.

“We are pleased to be introducing our new UTC-UX system to Northern Ireland as part of the contract, which will provide an easy to use, intuitive and fully hosted system for the traffic management team.”

“With digitalisation, we are helping mobility operators worldwide to make their networks and infrastructure more intelligent and ultimately enhance their road-users’ experience.”

The UTC-UX system was rolled-out by Siemens at the end of 2018. It operates directly from a web browser and includes junction status, different types of maps and control features with context sensitive menus.

This enhanced system features latest the mapping capabilities, new equipment overview screens, simple toggle on/off and context menu controls. Users can explore a controlled junction and related equipment.

The contract is likely to involve the migration of the legacy systems to the company’s Stratos cloud based highways management system over the next three years.

Reints added: “With digitalisation, we are helping mobility operators worldwide to make their networks and infrastructure more intelligent and ultimately enhance their road-users’ experience.

“Moving to Stratos will help achieve this, providing the authority with a fully managed software service and enabling it to meet the challenges of running Northern Ireland’s road network now and well into the future.”