Siemens traffic solutions improve Amsterdam bottleneck

Solutions supplied by Siemens are helping to improve traffic conditions at the Coentunnel, one of the most heavily used traffic arteries in the Netherlands, used by 100,000 vehicles every day. The tunnel, which links Amsterdam to the province of North Holland, has been a cause of traffic congestion and delays for many years. A much-needed second tunnel opened in spring 2013, together with a three kilometre long elevated section of freeway connecting the tunnel with the southern part of the city to relieve t
July 9, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Solutions supplied by 189 Siemens are helping to improve traffic conditions at the Coentunnel, one of the most heavily used traffic arteries in the Netherlands, used by 100,000 vehicles every day.

The tunnel, which links Amsterdam to the province of North Holland, has been a cause of traffic congestion and delays for many years. A much-needed second tunnel opened in spring 2013, together with a three kilometre long elevated section of freeway connecting the tunnel with the southern part of the city to relieve the heavily-used A10 route.

At the heart of the solution is the tunnel control centre's Sitraffic ITCC, which monitors and manages all of the operating and traffic systems and all of the outdoor equipment. A closed-circuit television system (CCTV) provides traffic monitoring, while the integrated automatic incident detection (AID) system provides identification of smoke as well as congestion and accidents.

Siemens also equipped the elevated section with state-of-the-art traffic technology including a traffic management system, monitoring technology and technical infrastructure components such as communication and camera technology.

To meet stringent safety requirements for the elevated section, Siemens used safety technologies similar to those used in the tunnel: sensors along the elevated section measure traffic volume and flow and automatically notify the control centre in the event of stationary traffic, slow-moving vehicles and wrong-way travel.
Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Centralised traffic control, managing changing traffic demands
    January 23, 2012
    Paul van Koningsbruggen and Dave Marples of Technolution BV describe, using a national example from the Netherlands, how smart add-ons to traffic control centres combine to increase cross-centre capabilities and cost-efficiency. Increasingly, traffic management is becoming the natural partner of the civil engineer, improving flows over existing infrastructure to deliver an alternative to laying more blacktop. As in any emerging market, the first steps towards mature traffic management have not necessarily r
    Read More
  • Bridging the highway travel information gap
    March 14, 2012
    A new traffic management solution is attempting to bridge the gap in information available on freeways and arterial roadways. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. Agencies responsible for national networks of roads around the world have the ability to measure, analyse and disseminate accurate travel information to drivers. Millions of dollars go into data collection infrastructure to collect traffic congestion and travel time information on major freeways or highways. For example, a driver on the I-210 in the Lo
    Read More
  • TomTom provides flexibility for Riyadh
    June 1, 2016
    With five years of traffic disruption ahead and an inadequate traffic monitoring system, the authorities in Riyadh needed a solution – and quickly. In preparation for embarking on what is currently the world’s largest metro construction project, the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) in Riyadh needed to put in place measures to minimise the additional congestion and travel delays the five-year project would inevitably cause.
    Read More
  • Sony’s vision systems help limit risk in road tunnels
    November 10, 2017
    Sony’s Stephane Clauss looks at the imaging requirements in tunnels. In the event of a fire inside a tunnel, the dispersion of gases and heat is prevented, creating extreme temperatures that have led to many deaths. Following tragic incidents including Mont Blanc, European legislation requires longer tunnels to be fitted with incident and smoke detection systems.
    Read More

Highlighted Content