The property security and highways safety specialists, VPS UK, have landed a double finals place in a prestigious peer-reviewed construction awards event for 2020. Their projects have been shortlisted in the Best Use of Technology category, where other nominees include construction giants Kier and consultants Atkins.
A Traffic Incursion warning system is designed to help protect the 4,000 people who work on the construction & repair of our highways, often alongside traffic moving at high speeds. On average, there are nearly 200 incidents a month of accidental incursions, where drivers accidentally enter roadworks, and/or abuse maintenance staff.
An integrated camera, sensor, audible and light alarm warning safety system alerts road workers to the danger of an approaching vehicle which has strayed into their work zone , using the latest analytic high-definition camera systems.
The second shortlisted entry combines two projects, both of which form part of a SmartZone Safety system to help keep the roads free-flowing during construction projects.
A UK first were variable multilingual road signs that targeted foreign truck drivers according to their country of origin. The number of foreign HGV drivers on UK roads has soared by almost 50 per cent in the past few years. Satnav makes it simple for them to navigate across the UK, but when there is a road closure or diversion, things can start to get difficult reading the temporary signs in English. Police services have raised concerns of foreign truck drivers taking wrong routes on minor roads and inappropriately through villages. The variable message signs are triggered by foreign number plate recognition cameras, so that a truck driver has a message flash up roadside in their own language, well ahead of a road closure or diversion.
In another project, 'electronic goalposts' innovatively combined sensors, variable message signs, alarms systems and monitoring, to provide an award-winning model for alerting over-height vehicles in time before they reach a low bridge. This system helps prevent potentially fatal and costly bridge strikes. Lorries or buses strike a low bridge in the UK nearly 2,000 times a year, almost five times a day. Bridge collisions lead to road and rail delays, heavy congestion, environmental hazards from fumes and emissions, and sometimes derailment and bridge collapse. In the worst cases they can cause serious injuries and fatalities. Where these electronic goalposts have been installed, no bridge strikes have occurred.