Smart traffic light system enables safer traffic management

SAGE delivered a smart traffic light system for McMahon Services to ensure safe and cost-effective single-lane traffic management across the Old Murray Bridge 24/7 for 18 months. 

Challenge

Constructed in 1879, the historic Old Murray Bridge provides residents in South Australia’s Murray Bridge a direct route into town across the Murray River, linking the cities of Murray Bridge and Murray Bridge East. 

To extend the historic landmark’s operational life and to maintain its structural integrity, the Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) is undertaking major refurbishment works on the Old Murray Bridge. Commenced in May 2022, the Old Murray Bridge Refurbishment Project will increase the bridge's life span by an estimated 30 years through significant refurbishments and heritage restoration works.

The works include the complete blasting and painting of the heritage bridge steel structure, as well as structural repairs to maintain the integrity of the bridge. To undertake this work, McMahon Services designed and installed specialised scaffolding and encapsulation systems to minimise the risk of environmental harm. Even though the works are intrusive and restrict traffic, McMahon Services designed its system to minimise congestion and maximise safety for the public and workers. An approximately 18-month undertaking, the project required 24/7 traffic management on the Old Murray Bridge to accommodate a single-lane arrangement at all times. 

A bird’s eye view overlooking the Old Murray Bridge (top bridge) in Murray Bridge.

In typical conditions, the Old Murray Bridge provides a popular route for the local community, experiencing peaks of approximately 10,000 light and heavy vehicles per day. Therefore, it was critical to minimise the disruption to local traffic during the project while ensuring the safe and efficient passage of local vehicles and McMahon Services workers. To optimise safety and efficiency across the project, McMahon Services worked with SAGE Group companies, SAGE Automation and Addinsight, to build and implement a portable automated traffic light and boom gate solution for the Old Murray Bridge for the duration of the works. 

SAGE Automation designed and installed smart traffic light systems with one at each end of the Old Murray Bridge for the duration of the works. These are connected to a Centralised Monitoring and Management System (CMMS) for remote monitoring, and featuring complete integration with Addinsight traffic intelligence software, for a bespoke, end-to-end automated traffic management solution.

The smart traffic light system dynamically controls the signal prioritisation and timing based on radar detection and real-time communication with Addinsight, which controls the green light window and enables flexibility to adjust on and off-peak prioritisation.

The smart traffic light system is comprised of two portable traffic light trailers and boom gates, together with a connected control network.

Traffic light system (per trailer)

• 1 Solar panel
• 1 Battery
• 1 Red/amber/green traffic light
• 2 Radars
• 1 CCTV Internet Protocol (IP) camera
• 1 Automatic Number-Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera
• 1 Traffic equipment trailer
• 1 Boom gate.

The smart traffic light system in SAGE’s advanced manufacturing facility. 

The smart traffic light system monitors vehicles approaching the bridge (utilising radars) and exiting the bridge (utilising ANPR cameras) to determine optimised traffic flow in accordance with pre-set green window parameters within traffic intelligence software, Addinsight. 

The ANPR cameras confirm when the last vehicle travelling in one direction has exited, ensuring the green signal for the other direction is not activated prior, removing the risk of head-on collisions due to human error. IP cameras provide an additional layer of safety, enabling remote visual monitoring of the bridge by the traffic management controller using a companion application.

The smart traffic light system on-site during the Old Murray Bridge Refurbishment Project.

A portable boom gate connects to the smart traffic light system, controlled via two independent relays (a separate relay for open and closed) at either end of the bridge, providing an added safeguard for the project work zone and preventing collision.  

Thanks to inbuilt infrared (IR) illumination the cameras can be used in both day and night conditions, while the two ends of the bridge communicate using the 4G cellular network, enabling effective control and monitoring over long distances. 

Solar-powered and provisioned with batteries, the solution provides a minimum of five days of autonomy in the event of no sun and is resistant to inclement weather conditions. 

Control network (per trailer)

• CMMS
• 1 ITS cabinet
• 1 PLC Input-Output
• 1 Network switch
• 1 SAGE Edge device.

Connected to each traffic light system is a fully integrated control network, enabling complete monitoring and real-time visibility of the Old Murray Bridge and surrounding road networks. The control network solution is comprised of an ITS cabinet, PLC I/C, network switch, SAGE Edge device, Addinsight, and a connected CMMS. 

There is an operator control panel at each traffic equipment trailer, which can be used to control the operation of the traffic light system via auto or manual mode with one traffic controller at each trailer on-site. 

The operator control panel for the automated traffic light system features automatic and manual modes. 

Connected to the master PLC via the cellular network through a SAGE Edge unit in each of the traffic equipment trailers, each of the traffic light systems can be partially monitored by Addinsight – McMahon’s real-time system interface – and completely by the CMMS – SAGE’s diagnostics interface.

Addinsight

Addinsight is a suite of software applications that collect and analyse movement data, providing continuous reporting of changes across transport networks in real-time.

Using an extensive network of IoT connectivity built through a range of projects and partnerships, Addinsight provides McMahon Services with access to real-time movement data from a vast network of connected IoT devices in the Murray Bridge region.

The adjustable green light window traffic signal prioritisation within Addinsight for the Old Murray Bridge.

Addinsight integrates with the smart traffic light system to enable pre-set parameters for on and off-peak green window prioritisation. On-peak — generally set between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays — and off-peak time zones — set for all other times and on weekends — can be adjusted within the software in real-time to accommodate for abnormal congestion.

For example, if a community event causes an increase in traffic across the Old Murray Bridge, adjustments can be made to the parameters to ensure a wider green window for the direction most impacted by congestion. Enabling real-time traffic movement and congestion information right across Australia, McMahon Services has complete visibility of the work zone and surrounding suburbs via the Addinsight web application.

Through Addinsight, McMahon Services can navigate a birds-eye map of the area and investigate incidents, adjusting the smart traffic light system’s green light window to accommodate changing traffic conditions in real-time, if required.

The highly customisable on and off-peak prioritisation options within Addinsight tailored for McMahon Services.

Through a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, Addinsight provided McMahon Services with comprehensive incident detection and congestion management and planning and traffic modelling capabilities across the duration of the project, with plans to use the software for future projects.

CMMS

A Centralised Monitoring and Management System (CMMS) was developed to enable full system monitoring of the performance and operation of the smart traffic light system by SAGE engineers during commissioning with an option available for client handover via licencing.

The CMMS utilises IoT connectivity with SAGE Edge devices installed on the portable trailers and features Addinsight integration adding a comprehensive layer of remote monitoring, diagnostics, software configuration and field software updates (for future improvements) without the need to attend the site. 

The ‘intersection overview’ dashboard displays real-time information on the smart traffic light system.

SAGE CMMS is a customisable, module-based dashboard for monitoring, automated fault reports and alerts, and comprehensive movement data, enabling data-driven decision-making capabilities.

The system uses Ignition SCADA to provide a user-friendly browser-based interface capable of being customised to meet any requirements. The analysis and production of data are generated through the CMMS to produce a series of graphs and summaries from data collected from each traffic light.

The ‘devices list’ interface shows device performance for the southbound smart traffic light system at Old Murray Bridge.

SAGE developed a customised, user-friendly, and flexible graphical user interface (GUI) which is built for customer use and could be used by operators on-site in the future. SAGE CMMS is a web-based client solution that does not require software to be installed and is available securely via internet browser.

The ‘operations history’ interface displays historical data of the green window, including current status.

For this project, the CMMS was utilised by the SAGE service team to provide remote monitoring support for the client, with the option to fully licence the product for future projects.

SAGE CMMS provides the following health and monitoring capabilities:

• Combining map display and searchable device drop-down list to locate devices
• Popup window shows important device information with navigation to detailed device information and configuration
• SAGE Edge devices monitor system health and send alarms to the CMMS when triggered.

Group capability

Working closely with McMahon Services throughout the entirety of the project, SAGE Group provided one point of contact from design to commission, delivering a solution that met the client’s unique requirements in an Australian industry-first solution.

SAGE Automation completed the design, installation, and commissioning of the smart traffic light system and connected CMMS, while Addinsight provided the installation, integration, and onboarding of the Addinsight software.

As with most projects requiring single-lane traffic management, The Old Murray Bridge Refurbishment Project would have required a traffic controller at either end of the bridge for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week across the entirety of the 18-month project – an estimated labour requirement exceeding 26,000 hours.

The smart traffic light solution only requires one traffic manager at either end at any time, effectively halving traffic management costs while enhancing safety for motorists and operators. Traffic managers do not have to stand on the road during their shifts, they are able to monitor safely from the roadside instead. This allows them to take a holistic view of traffic conditions and actively manage them. The software package also allows project managers to view and monitor traffic conditions at any time from any location, enabling faster reactions to incidents if and when they occur.

The smart traffic management system allows both the early detection of vehicles approaching the Old Murray Bridge and the confirmation of vehicles leaving the bridge to optimise traffic flow and reduce delays for local traffic while supporting a safe work zone for McMahon Services.

Delivering real-time traffic signal changes during the green phase – instead of the time-based traffic signal changes afforded by typical sensor-based traffic lights – the solution provides more efficient and safer bridge crossings, removing the frustrations motorists face when waiting at a red light despite when the road ahead is clear.

While the project is still underway, SAGE’s smart traffic light solution is expected to significantly improve operational costs, improve safety for both the local community and construction workers, and enable data-driven decision-making capabilities for further improvements.