AMG Systems has announced it has been selected to supply the transmission solution for the refurbished Victorian-built Blackwall Tunnel under the river Thames in London. The three-year refurbishment programme, costing over US$113 million, is being undertaken by Transport for London (TfL) to bring the tunnel up to European safety regulations. P. Ducker Systems (PDS) is undertaking the task of supplying the tunnel systems for the project.
As Mike Rose, business development manager at PDS points out, the Blackwall Tunnel was originally built to transport horse-drawn carriages under the river Thames, but today more than 50,000 vehicles use the tunnel every day.
“There are two tunnel bores – each, carrying traffic in two lanes. The northbound tunnel, which we’re currently working on, is 1.4 km long. The new tunnel systems cover new fire and incident detection and a new CCTV camera system. The transmission solution will be supplied by AMG Systems. We will be implementing the AMG 5000 series for transmission of video and associated data and alarms over singlemode fibre. The solution covers 64 cameras mounted throughout the tunnel bore,” Rose said.
In order to minimise disruption to the road users during the refurbishment programme, the tunnel is closed each evening at 9.00pm until 5.00am when all the work is conducted. Work is currently ahead of schedule and TfL is expecting that the work will be completed before the end of 2011, a year ahead of schedule.
