Skip to main content

Kapsch traffic management for Chile

Kapsch TrafficCom has been awarded a US$860,000 contract to implement and operate a new variable message sign (VMS) system on the only access road to El Teniente copper mine, Chile. The system is the first stage of a planned traffic management system. Situated around 80km south of the capital city of Santiago de Chile in the Andes mountains, El Teniente is the world’s largest underground copper mine, operated by the state-owned mining company Codelco. More than 10,000 miners are transported to and from th
June 21, 2013 Read time: 2 mins

4984 Kapsch TrafficCom has been awarded a US$860,000 contract to implement and operate a new variable message sign (VMS) system on the only access road to El Teniente copper mine, Chile.  The system is the first stage of a planned traffic management system.

Situated around 80km south of the capital city of Santiago de Chile in the Andes mountains, El Teniente is the world’s largest underground copper mine, operated by the state-owned mining company Codelco.  More than 10,000 miners are transported to and from the mine every day, in 500 buses.  Strict safety regulations mean that while the buses are on the road, trucks loaded with copper ore or any other vehicles are prohibited from using the route.

The road is currently closed on an alternating basis in order to avoid collisions; installation of the VMS system will improve the road’s safety and efficiency.  Three types of VMS are to be installed, with nine main and eight secondary panels and a central control system which collects traffic information and displays messages on the VMS. Kapsch’s solution can be integrated seamlessly into the future main traffic management system.

Related Content

  • August 5, 2013
    Measuring the effectiveness of winter VMS
    A survey into the effectiveness of weather-related variable message signs on a trans-mountain highway has some interesting results, as Alexis Bacelar told ITS Europe. A study in the Massif Central region of France evaluating the usefulness of winter weather warning signs has highlighted the effect of variable message signs on driver behaviour. During the winter of 2009-2010, road operator Massif Central Direction Interdépartementale des Routes (MC DIR) started installing bad weather-specific variable messag
  • June 21, 2016
    Keeping a close watch on ‘too-dangerous-to-drive’ highway
    Like many others, the authorities in Argentina implemented ITS to improve road safety – but this case was a little different to most as Mauro Nogarin explains. The 70km of highway that separate Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires from the city of La Plata had long been considered too dangerous for anyone to make the trip with a private car. Figures on criminal attacks and vandalism with stones, nails, logs, spark plugs or any other element that can damage a car’s tyres and cause them to stop in order rob th
  • April 21, 2025
    Kapsch tunnels into US and Brazil
    Projects in Florianópolis & Fort Lauderdale completed - and Hawaii awarded
  • February 2, 2012
    Active traffic management increases safety and capacity
    WSDOT is deploying Active Traffic Management in order to increase safety and capacity on its strategic roads. WSDOT's Patricia Michaud elaborates