Easy and safe automatic cone placing

Tasks that should always be undertaken using the protection of a truck or trailer-mounted attenuator, but frequently aren't. That's why Dutch company Trafiq attracted so much international attention last year when it developed and launched the Mobile Automatic Roadblock System (MARS). Not only does the system provide complete safety for highway workers, it automates the entire process. And on top of that, because of the speed at which it deploys and collects cones, MARS provides substantial cost savings com
January 31, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Road cones are laid and retrieved by MARS by the driver/operator from the safety of his cab

It could be argued that the most dangerous job in work zones is probably cone laying and removal.

Tasks that should always be undertaken using the protection of a truck or trailer-mounted attenuator, but frequently aren't. That's why Dutch company 1913 Trafiq attracted so much international attention last year when it developed and launched the Mobile Automatic Roadblock System (MARS). Not only does the system provide complete safety for highway workers, it automates the entire process. And on top of that, because of the speed at which it deploys and collects cones, MARS provides substantial cost savings compared to conventional and labour-intensive methods.

On arrival at a section of road to be coned, MARS first automatically places a rumble strip, a light arrow and attenuator to mark the start of the road works, before beginning to lay the miles of cones required. Everything is controlled from within the cab by the driver/operator.

One of the first users of the system was T&M, the traffic management company involved in highways maintenance work on Amsterdam's A9 and A10 motorways. As T&M's Peter Jan Hendricks commented, "The speed and safety aspects demonstrated by the MARS system far exceeded our expectations." Since then T&M has continuously rented the MARS for other projects, while other Dutch competitors are now also using the system.

According to Peter van Nes of Trafiq, in addition to its use in the Netherlands, MARS is now also being used in the US, France, and Switzerland. "Because of actual requests coming from users interested in buying specific versions, we are actually in the process of developing and building a smaller version to fit the southern European roads and hard shoulders. At the same time, we are also developing and building a larger version, capable of carrying a bigger volume of cones in order to work in longer tunnels or longer distances, with tighter spacings," he says. Also, because of numerous requests for a rumble strip layer as a separate unit, Trafiq has developed a standalone version which can be mounted on any truck by a DIN-plate.
Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Need for simpler urban tolling solutions
    January 10, 2013
    A common assumption, even amongst informed observers, is that there’s but a handful of urban charging schemes in operation around the world and scant prospect of that changing any time soon. Larger city-sized schemes such as Singapore, London and Stockholm come readily to mind but if we take a wider view and also consider urban access control and Low Emission Zones (LEZs) then the picture changes rather radically. There is a notable concentration of such schemes in Europe but worldwide the number is comfort
    Read More
  • Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    October 29, 2015
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.
    Read More
  • IBTTA 2010 meeting focuses on sustainability
    February 2, 2012
    Ken Philmus, chief meeting organiser, talks about what attendees can expect to see at this year's IBTTA annual meeting and exhibition
    Read More
  • UK smart motorways scrapped due to 'lack of public confidence'
    April 17, 2023
    'Pause' on roll-out has been made permanent - with £1bn cost also cited as a factor
    Read More

Highlighted Content