Automatic Incident Detection on Bridges Case Study - Bolte Bridge, ,

Reliable automatic incident Wide range surveillance of Intelligent rules-based software, detection bridge area easily adaptable

Detection through all weather Automatic pedestrian and Automatic vehicle tracking and and light conditions cyclist detection classification

navtechradar.com The Challenge Enhancing Bridge User Safety

Bolte Bridge The twin cantilever Bolte bridge is the largest Bolte bridge needed a reliable AID system with both bridge in Australia and provides a critical link high detection rates and low false alarm rates to keep between Harbour and three major highways the operator vigilant. Incidents need fast and accurate connecting Melbourne to New South Wales and detection to maintain road users’ safety and traffic Southern Australia. It is critical that the bridge remains flow. operational 24 hours a day as a great volume of traffic One particular issue was of great interest to and heavy goods vehicles drive through to access the . Access to the bridge is prohibited to port. pedestrians and cyclists and their presence is a The Australian road network manager Transurban, safety risk for both themselves and other road users. appreciated that an advanced level of safety was Transurban needed a system that could provide needed on the bridge. Due to the high cost of the reliable detection and tracking of movement of bridge infrastructure and the great volume of traffic, a pedestrians and cyclists. A further requirement was video automatic incident detection (AID) system was that detection performance should not be affected installed during the planning phase. The application by weather and light conditions and the on-going of video analytics however, proved problematic as performance of the system should not be dependent the system's accuracy and reliability of detection on regular, expensive routine maintenance, which was seriously affected by strong vibrations as well as video AID is notorious for. rapidly changing weather and light conditions.

One issue Bolte bridge wanted To solve this problem ClearWay When a cyclist or pedestrian to solve was that cyclists and was configured to provide an early is detected, the operator pedestrian were not permitted warning to the operators. Its radars automatically receives a warning access. The operators needed to are able to scan a wide area in the alarm. The early warning enables be informed about cyclists and approach to the bridge and detect the operator to deal with the pedestrians potentially accessing any pedestrians or cyclists before potential breach before any major the bridge area before they they reach the bridge. disruption occurs. disrupted the traffic flow. The Solution Advanced Bridge Safety

Early warning for fast emergency services response Automatic Transurban initially tested two radar sensors on the bridge in different weather conditions, throughout Detection the summer and the winter. The evaluation of the test Reliable detection demonstrated that ClearWay could operate no matter ClearWay sensors the weather conditions or how intense the vibrations automatically detect incidents. were. Its low false alarm rate of less than one per day increased operators' confidence in the system. Following the success of the trial, eight units were installed providing all lane and hard shoulder monitoring for unauthorised pedestrian presence and Low false stopped vehicles. The system provided continuous Alarm monitoring even in congested traffic situations. High accuracy The radars scan 360°, detecting cars up to 500m ClearWay has an unrivalled low away and pedestrians at 350m. The 360-scan is done false alarm rate of less than one per day. four times per second and this frequent revisit time gives the radar the best tracking performance. The long coverage of the radars minimises the cost of the project as less infrastructure needs to be installed and maintained. Rules- ClearWay automatically detects incidents and raises alerts to operators in as little as 10 seconds. The based system gives maximum time to manage the situation Intelligent analysis ClearWay provides early effectively and coordinate a response with emergency warning of pedestrians and services. cyclists approaching the bridge. About ClearWay Benefits The system provides operators 'Navtech Radar’s product provided Complete situational with an early warning of potential a level of accuracy and reliability awareness problems as its long-range sensors that was not available through Real-time location of vehicles monitor not only all lanes, but traditional AID systems. and people to coordinate also the approach to the bridge. emergency response. Transurban required a method of Operators are alerted before detecting pedestrians attempting pedestrians have even entered the All weather performance to access Bolte bridge. Navtech bridge location. High performance even in was selected because of their extreme weather or lighting ClearWay's intelligent rules-based ability to deliver a reliable AID conditions. software applies advanced logic solution. to interpret recorded data and Early warning system Throughout our engagement, generate alarms. The software Alarms within 10 seconds of a Navtech has shown their easily integrates with other third- detected event. technical excellence in resolving party traffic management systems. all the challenges the project has Rules-based software With ClearWay installed, operators presented.' Set detection parameters and have detailed information and the James Cuthbert, Transurban suppress alarms for specified exact location of events, improving conditions. how incidents are handled. Future-proofed road network Connected corridor features for autonomous vehicles.

Third-party integration Automatically controls multiple cameras and sensors for complete situational awareness.

Very low false alarm rate Finely tuned to provide a maximum of one false alarm per sensor per day.

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