Skip to main content

Nortech and Idris vehicle classification technology trialled for tolling in China

South Africa-headquartered Nortech International, in conjunction with Beijing Navigator Technologies, has announced the conclusion of a successful trial of high accuracy vehicle classification for tolling on the Hebei Shi-huang Expressway in Hebei Province of China.
May 18, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
South Africa-headquartered 3560 Nortech International, in conjunction with Beijing Navigator Technologies, has announced the conclusion of a successful trial of high accuracy vehicle classification for tolling on the Hebei Shi-huang Expressway in Hebei Province of China.

Nortech International, which has become one of the world’s largest suppliers of inductive loop detectors with an installed based in excess of one million channels, became a certified 36 Idris Technology Partner of Diamond Consulting from UK in 2006 and under license supply the patented Idris Technology software onboard the Nortech developed hardware as solutions for traffic detection, data collection and incident detection for applications such as Vehicle Classification, Tolling, Vehicle Enforcement, Incident Detection, Vehicle Profiling and Journey Time.

Last month, Nortech, together with its local distributor Beijing Navigator Technologies (BNT), and supported by DCS, undertook the installation of the IDR206, rack mounted hardware, with Idris AT600 to classify vehicles according to the specifications released by the China Ministry of Transportation and National Development and Reform Committee.

This trial entailed the accurate classification of vehicles in 5 classes determined by the number of axles, number of wheels per axle and axle base.

BNT, together with the owners of the expressway, submitted a proposal to the provincial Department of Transport for the trial which is entered into as a research and confirmation project. Zhang Kairu , president of BNT went on to say in his motivation for the project approval,  that “in order to fully test the claimed accuracies of the system and also fully demonstrate the worthiness of the system under China’s current tolling network and data collection practice, a real-time site with live data was the only way to verify the supremacy of the technology. Furthermore, to explore the practicality of deploying the system across China’s expressway network.”

The results of the trial, supported by the raw data, will be presented to the owners of the Hebei Shi-huang Expressway before it is presented to the Hebei Department of Transportation and Highway administration bureau. Positive acceptance by these bureaus could lead to the results also been presented to the China Ministry of Transportation for appraisal under the Technology Innovation Awards, but the ultimate goal is that the system will be put forward at a national level as a solution to current issues that the tolling authorities are facing, particularly with providing reliable and accurate information.

According to Zhang “Using the IDRIS solution, the  reliability and precision of data acquisition and vehicle classification, when applied to our existing road toll network, will increase the work efficiency, achieve precise tolling information and eliminate fraud.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Free-flow upgrade to Holland's Westerschelde tunnel's toll system
    February 1, 2012
    Unbroken service Technolution's Winifred Roggekamp and Dave Marples describe efforts to upgrade the Westerscheldetunnel's tolling system to give free-flow capability. Until 2003 the Flanders region of Zeeland, in the south-west of the Netherlands, was connected to the mainland only by ferry. The new Westerscheldetunnel, a 6.6km toll tunnel, improves communications with the region considerably, taking some 100km off the alternative road journey. In 2006 it was recognised that the toll plaza for the tunnel ne
  • Tech combo used to target overweight vehicles
    November 7, 2013
    UK enforcement agency VOSA is using a combination of ANPR and weigh-in-motion technology to detect and target overweight trucks on some of the busiest motorways. Overloaded vehicles pose a potential danger to drivers, other road users and pedestrians.
  • Kistler Lineas strip sensors receive OIML certification
    September 16, 2015
    Kistler has announced that its Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) system consisting of Lineas quartz WIM sensors and the Kistler WIM Data Logger has been OIML R-134 certified. Kistler said its WIM system precisely measure axle loads and vehicle weights from low to high speed. It is now, with the OIML certificate (International Organisation of Legal Meteorology) also certified for legal applications from low to medium speed (3-65 kph) with accuracy class 5 and class 10. This enables the automatic collection of weig
  • Future of tolling: the priorities
    January 14, 2020
    In the final part of his investigation into the future of tolling technology, Josef Czako of Moving Forward Consulting asks what industry figures see as the priorities going forward…