Following the successful completion of a series of pilot projects and trial sites, Siemens Mobility has installed its first Plus+ traffic signals in Coventry.
The company was awarded a contract by Coventry City Council to install its Plus+ traffic signal control system at a busy intersection on the B4106, one of the main routes in to the city. The scheme was commissioned into service at the end of June, with Siemens Mobility having delivered the work as a complete turnkey package, including design, civils and temporary traffic management.
Developed to deliver on-street resilience and reliability, as well as fast and cost-effective installation for both new and refurbishment projects, Plus+ uses distributed intelligence with simple power and data cabling to reduce overall installation and maintenance costs and increase intersection availability.
Ben Gray, highway network manager, Coventry City Council, said: “Coventry has long been at the forefront of traffic and automotive technology and we always try to incorporate innovative solutions into our work. We are therefore excited to be the first UK authority to install Plus+, which will shape and change the way we work and install future schemes.
“With Plus+ being much quicker and easier to install, there is less risk and cost to the authority, enabling us to provide a better service to people who visit, live and work in our city”.
The installation in Coventry’s Allesley Old Road is a complete refurbishment of a MOVA-controlled intersection and includes new Plus+ pedestrian facilities. The system will be monitored by Coventry City Council’s urban traffic control and Stratos traffic management systems.
System configuration work for the project was carried out off-site in factory-controlled conditions, further reducing the amount of site time required for the installation team and minimising disruption to road users.
Siemens Mobility has also been awarded a £1.45m contract for work on an additional 24 sites in Coventry, which will include further Plus+ installations. Forming part of Transport for West Midland’s Key Route Network programme, Siemens will deliver this work as a complete turnkey solution, including traffic management and civils work.
Plus+ has been designed with dedicated failsafe signal heads and pedestrian indicators, as well as new smart loop modules to make sure that the overall system is tolerant of individual component and cable damage. This results in higher intersection availability and most significantly, reduced disruption to road users, said Siemens Mobility.
Furthermore, the Plus+ system includes enhanced ‘self-checking’ and diagnostics, which provides additional protection against false signals being shown on-street due to error or deliberate acts.
