Skip to main content

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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Arizona DoT trials dust-warning system along I-10
    November 21, 2019
    Arizona Department of Transportation (ADoT) has developed a system to tell drivers to slow down on part of Interstate 10 (I-10) where blowing dust reduces visibility.
  • Detection analysis technology successfully predicts traffic flows
    February 3, 2012
    David Crawford investigates new detection analysis technology from IBM. Locations on both the East and West Coasts of the US are scheduled for early deployments of IBM's new Traffic Prediction Tool (TPT) statistical analysis model for the fine-time resolution and near-term prediction of road flow conditions. Developed by IBM's Watson Research Laboratories, TPT is designed to analyse data from the the key detection indicators - average vehicle volumes and speeds passing a location in a given time interval -
  • Troopers in the TOC – a recipe for success
    May 11, 2016
    A traffic incident management project in Arizona has speeded up reopening closed lanes and saved an estimated $165m through reducing traffic delays. The process for clearing roadway incidents on the Maricopa County freeways in Arizona has always reflected industry best practice with, for instance, a live feed of freeway cameras to the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) dispatch centre and the City of Phoenix Fire dispatch centre. The region has nearly 480km (300 miles) of freeway connecting 27 citi
  • Developing ‘next generation’ traffic control centre technology
    July 4, 2012
    The Rijkswaterstaat and Highways Agency have joined forces to investigate what the market can do to realise an idealistic vision for traffic control centre technology. Jon Masters reports One particular seminar session of the Intertraffic show in Amsterdam in March was notably over subscribed. So heavy was the press to attend that your author, making his way over late from another appointment, could not get in and found himself craning over other heads locked outside to overhear what was being said. The