On November 14, 2016, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck New Zealand, causing massive landslides on State Highway 1 and closing the main highway on the South Island.
This road closure required an alternate route be used, created through sections of State Highway 1, SH6, SH63, SH6, SH65, SH7, then back onto SH1.
This area presented the New Zealand Transport Agency with some severe problems: the area had limited cell phone coverage; no operational intelligent transportation solutions; no visual access for contractors; no real-time data as far as speed or traffic volume; and only two variable message signs. In addition to these problems, many of the roads had been neglected and were not built to handle heavy truck traffic.
“The roads are narrow in places, there are nine river crossings serviced only with one-lane bridges, and the quality of the road construction is intended for occasional recreational vehicle use, not 50-ton-plus heavy freight rigs,” said Sean Lewis, director of the New Zealand Transport Agency during a presentation given at ITS World Congress.
The first consideration when the alternate routes were considered was to get information available for the agency, contractors, consultants and emergency services in an area where no vehicle detection was installed. This was vital not only because the alternative route would become heavily traveled, but also because they knew this would be the main route for more than a year as the damage on SH1 was repaired. Current information on the route was insufficient even to create accurate ETAs for the traveling public.
Green Signal Consulting came up with a plan to gather and share information for this route. Six Wavetronix SmartSensor HD units were installed along the route and provided vehicle count, classification and speed data. SmartSensor HDs were chosen because of their ease of installation and because of the accuracy and reliability of the data they provide.
The information gathered by the SmartSensor HD units were fed into a website, p2c.nz, which provided the information to anyone who needed it—though it was directed to officials to make decisions about how best to manage the new route. Since SmartSensor HD sensor units are simple to install, the process of installation and launching the website only took about a week.
“Having the information available for the teams on the ground; the contractors and police was vital,” Lewis said. “This is where the decisions are made, and the rubber hits the road.”
