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

  • Communications redundancy increases VMS reliability
    December 17, 2014
    Hybrid communications to variable message signs increase resilience to natural disasters and enable deployment in remote areas, as Alan Allegretto explains. Variable Message Signs (VMSs) are a common sight and a well-proven means to improve public safety on our roads and highways. ITS professionals rank the VMS as second only to interoperable radios as the most important technology to improve effectiveness during emergency incidents and evacuations. Ironically, however, current systems suffer from one criti
  • Hong Kong's integrated traffic management system
    May 22, 2012
    Hong Kong’s Route 8 now features an extensive and advanced traffic control and surveillance system developed to overcome challenges of great scale and complexity, write Delcan vice president Rex Lee and MD Joseph Lam
  • Virtual traffic management centres, a new direction in traffic monitoring
    January 30, 2012
    David Crawford picks up a new direction trend in traffic monitoring The surprise winner in the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) category of the recently-announced 2011 OSMOSE (Open Source for MObile and SustainablE city) Awards for European innovations in urban transport, is the Danish city of Aalborg - which doesn't have a TMC. Alternatively, one might consider its 'virtual' TMC as a signpost for the future in medium-sized cities.
  • The importance of going with the flow
    April 6, 2018
    Ensuring worker safety and up-to-date driver information is crucial to ensure that roadworks are not a source of danger and delay. Andrew Williams looks at a scheme on the A14 in Cambridgeshire, UK. In recent years, portable workzone ITS solutions have emerged as important tools in the management of major roadworks and system upgrade projects - and are viewed as an increasingly vital means of ensuring any ongoing traffic flow disruption is kept to a minimum. The technology forms a central component of an