Skip to main content

Dartford Crossing gets enhanced PA system

A new traffic safety system installed on The Dartford Crossing, the busiest estuarial crossing in the UK, is benefitting from a high quality public address (PA) system to communicate with drivers in the event of an incident. To combat the noisy road and traffic conditions, PEL Services installed a Bosch Praesideo digital PA system, with master and slave network-controllers and incorporating ambient noise sensing to automatically adjust sound levels to compensate for substantial variations in the levels o
May 25, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
A new traffic safety system installed on The Dartford Crossing, the busiest estuarial crossing in the UK, is benefitting from a high quality public address (PA) system to communicate with drivers in the event of an incident.

To combat the noisy road and traffic conditions, 8431 PEL Services installed a 311 Bosch Praesideo digital PA system, with master and slave network-controllers and incorporating ambient noise sensing to automatically adjust sound levels to compensate for substantial variations in the levels of background traffic noise.  The system has been set to maintain the sound level at 5dB above ambient levels, in real time, to ensure announcements are audible but not anti-socially loud.

Twelve Bosch LBC 3432-03 unidirectional projection speakers have been used with Praesideo at four locations; three speakers on each pole, at different heights to cater for the varying vehicle heights.  The speakers have been configured in a contingent redundant arrangement, as an additional fail-safe. There are three amplifiers for each location including one on standby and the entire system is connected to an uninterrupted power supply.

Related Content

  • ITS World Congress debates perceptions of enforcement
    December 4, 2012
    The technical programme of this year’s ITS World Congress in Vienna includes a special session on the image of enforcement. ITS International examines the scale of the problem and what can be done about it. Debate on the merits and difficulties of enforcing speed limits appears centred on a conflict of principles. Put very simply, local communities, people living close to busy or hazardous roads, want to see traffic speeds calmed. Drivers on those roads, on the whole, want their principle of freedom to be m
  • Cost Benefit: There’s still life in the RSU
    May 24, 2021
    A mixture of mobile and static roadside units may be what’s required to fulfil the needs of connected vehicle communications
  • Traficon incident detection technology deployed in Dartford tunnel
    June 26, 2012
    Traficon has been awarded a contract to provide 70 VIP-IP video image processing boards for installation in the Dartford tunnel on London’s M25 orbital motorway. The technology will be installed in collaboration with Vital Technology Ltd, and will provide extensive automatic incident detection (AID) capabilities, including the detection of stopped vehicles and smoke detection. The Dartford - Thurrock river crossing is one of Europe's most heavily used crossings and complex traffic management systems. An ave
  • Smart Spanish city trials cell-based traffic management
    November 7, 2013
    David Crawford reports on an urban electronic nervous system. The northern Spanish city of Santander – historically a port - is now an emerging technology showcase attracting global attention as a prototype for a medium-sized smart city of the future. In a move to determine the optimal use of available data, it is creating a de-facto experimental laboratory for sensor and mobile phone-based urban traffic management and environmental monitoring innovations.