Skip to main content

Sri Lanka launches new highway traffic management system

Sri Lanka has recently opened the new highway traffic management system (HTMS), implemented by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, (MHI) on the country’s Southern Expressway. The installation is the country's first full-scale system of its kind, and it is expected to contribute significantly to improved safety and reduced congestion on a local expressway. The expressway, which opened in 2013, stretches 120 kilometres from Colombo, the largest city in Sri Lanka, to Matara. Construction work was performed under
August 11, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Sri Lanka has recently opened the new highway traffic management system (HTMS), implemented by 4962 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, (MHI) on the country’s Southern Expressway. The installation is the country's first full-scale system of its kind, and it is expected to contribute significantly to improved safety and reduced congestion on a local expressway.

The expressway, which opened in 2013, stretches 120 kilometres from Colombo, the largest city in Sri Lanka, to Matara. Construction work was performed under a grant-in-aid provided by the Japanese Government (Japan International Cooperation Agency [JICA]).

MHI handled all aspects of the project from engineering, procurement and installation to adjustment and operation training. The system includes some 30 sets of full-colour traffic information signboards, approximately 40 sets of vehicle detection cameras, weather sensors and other roadside equipment, as well as the central computer systems for data processing, operating status monitoring, etc.

The expressway will eventually be connected into neighbouring expressways already in operation. New expressway construction is currently under way in the country in preparation for an anticipated dramatic increase in vehicle traffic in the coming years.

The new HTMS is designed to provide expressway users with timely traffic information during bad weather or accidents, helping to prevent congestion and accidents caused by natural disasters and improving traffic management.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • US state of the art workzone safety
    January 25, 2012
    The Texas Transportation Institute's Jerry Ullman talks about the state of the art in work zone safety in the US. Work zones are places where, perhaps more than anywhere else on the road network, mobility and safety are strongly linked. Historically, field crews and contractors wanted vehicles in work zones to be moving as slowly as possible, assuming that made conditions the safest for work crews. We are though starting to see a shift in such thinking with the realisation that excessive delays or slow-down
  • Kenya to introduce microchip-fitted number plates
    November 17, 2014
    Shem Oirere looks at Kenya’s plans to introduce a new generation of vehicle registration plates fitted with microchip technology by the end of this year. In a move to improve driving standards and prevent fraud, the authorities in Kenya are planning the introduction of a new numberplate system which will incorporate microchip technology.
  • Progressing work zone safety systems
    February 1, 2012
    David Crawford investigates progress in a key safety area - work zones. Highway construction zone safety is taken seriously enough in the US to merit a special spring National Work Zone Awareness Week, which in 2010 ran from 19-23 April. Headed by the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), this aims to reduce an annual toll of work zone deaths - 720 in 2008 (an average of one every 10 hours) with more than 40,000 traffic injuries (an average of one every 13 minutes).
  • Progressing work zone safety systems
    February 6, 2012
    David Crawford investigates progress in a key safety area - work zones