Essex and Hertfordshire councils trial smart city services

Telensa will assess the potential quality-of-life and economic benefits of a range of smart city technologies in partnership with Essex County Council (ECC) and Hertfordshire County Council. The potential to monitor issues remotely, according to Ian Grundy, ECC cabinet member for highways, will save taxpayers money and help fix issues before they become a problem. Both councils are now assessing the suitability of three sites in Hertfordshire and Essex towns for a two-month pilot in March. The smart
March 8, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
7574 Telensa will assess the potential quality-of-life and economic benefits of a range of smart city technologies in partnership with Essex County Council (ECC) and Hertfordshire County Council. The potential to monitor issues remotely, according to Ian Grundy, ECC cabinet member for highways, will save taxpayers money and help fix issues before they become a problem.


Both councils are now assessing the suitability of three sites in Hertfordshire and Essex towns for a two-month pilot in March.

The smart city solutions will send alerts that predict issues for blocked street drains that cause flooding. They will also be used to notify the highways team of high winds or gusts and help them build a data set that predicts dangerous driving conditions. In addition, traffic monitoring and analytics will dim unnecessary streetlighting on empty roads to understand local traffic patterns while air quality monitoring is intended to deliver street-by-street measurements.

Ralph Sangster, executive member for Highways at HCC, said: “Smart technology is becoming an essential tool in delivering a high quality highways services and ‘Safe Smart’ is an exciting opportunity to trial a modern technology which reinforces Hertfordshire County Council's ongoing commitment to maintain and improve roads for the benefit of all Hertfordshire residents.

UTC

Related Content

  • April 18, 2018
    Telensa's Planet to replace 600 street lights in Hong Kong
    Telensa’s Planet system will replace around 600 streetlights in Yuen Long Town to help provide a low-cost platform for smart city applications. The company was chosen by the highways department of the Hong Kong special administrative region government. Planet is an intelligent street lighting system that is said to pay for itself in reduced energy and maintenance costs as well as improve quality of service through automatic fault reporting.
    Read More
  • January 25, 2018
    PTV’s software solutions help cities combat congestion and pollution
    Smart cities must rely on a mobility mix, real-time predictive models and collaborations, argues PTV’s Miller Crockart. Transport is reaching a new frontier and cities are at the forefront of the trend: for many urbanites, mobility no longer equals a privately-owned vehicle. They want on-demand services that cater for their individual mobility needs efficiently and sustainably - whether that is shared bikes or autonomous electric vehicles. Private car ownership will not drop overnight. The smooth
    Read More
  • July 2, 2019
    Highways England trials electric roadworks vehicles
    Highways England is trialling two electric powered roadworks vehicles with the aim of improving air quality along motorways and major A roads. One vehicle is being used across the East Midlands and the other on a major scheme on the A14 in the east of England. Martin Bolt, Highways England’s corporate group leader, operations directorate (Midlands) says: “We are actively exploring opportunities to improve air quality for those travelling on, or living near, our roads as well as reduce exposure for road wo
    Read More
  • April 25, 2013
    Growth of smart parking initiatives
    New initiatives in smart parking have been announced in the US and Europe in recent months. Is the age of smarter parking finally with us? Jon Masters investigates. Smart parking comes to Manchester, reads the headline to a story posted on the UK city’s website towards the end of March this year. Sensors will be fixed to parking spaces to give drivers and authorities information on parking availability via mobile phone apps and other software, the story goes on to explain. Lower down the page, Manchester Ci
    Read More

Highlighted Content