Skip to main content

MG Squared CCTV cameras reach Dutch canal locks

Operational benefits on offer from an innovative system of lowering CCTV cameras have reached the canal system of Zeeland in the Netherlands. Canal operator Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is currently installing cameras that can be raised and lowered as it introduces a system of remote monitoring and control to canal lock sites. The cameras are lowered and raised on a mounting system supplied by MG Squared, which is exhibiting at Intertraffic for the first time this year.
April 6, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

Operational benefits on offer from an innovative system of lowering CCTV cameras have reached the canal system of Zeeland in the Netherlands. Canal operator Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is currently installing cameras that can be raised and lowered as it introduces a system of remote monitoring and control to canal lock sites.

The cameras are lowered and raised on a mounting system supplied by 93 MG Squared, which is exhibiting at Intertraffic for the first time this year.

Having CCTV cameras that can be manually lowered for cleaning and maintenance means no need for work at height. For RWS it also means a big reduction in time that canal locks are out of service.

“If the cameras were fixed at height, it would mean a downtime of eight hours per lock every two weeks to allow cleaning and routine maintenance,” said MG Squared international business development manager Matt Mogle.

“It’s hard to quantify exactly how much time and cost is being saved by being able to manually lower and raise CCTV cameras, but it can be imagined we’re talking about a lot of potential benefit. RWS is initially looking to remotely monitor and operate a network of around 20 locks in Zeeland.”

So far, RWS has finished installing MG Squared’s camera poles at the Kreekrak Lock and the West Lock of Terneuzen in Zeeland and is working on a third (Terneuzen East). Each site has two locks for bi-directional navigation, around 300m in length. Two rows of eight CCTV cameras are mounted on poles 25m high and 40m apart so that operators can view the entire length and width of each site on an array of screens at a single control centre.

“Hopefully this is the start of a large new market for us,” Mogle said. “Anywhere that CCTV cameras are installed and needing to be maintained, there are significant safety and cost benefits from not having maintenance work carried out at height.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Interoperability facilitates mobility on Santiago’s toll roads
    August 10, 2016
    Drivers crossing Chile’s capital are benefitting from additional investment in ITS. Mauro Nogarin reports. Santiago de Chile is pioneering the development of concession-interoperable, multi-lane, free-flow urban highways. This road network crosses the city from north to south (Autopista Central), from east to west (Costanera Norte) and also includes the north-western (Vespucio Norte) and southern (Vespucio Sur) ring roads surrounding this metropolitan area of seven million people.
  • Swarco signs aid peak time traffic flow on residential streets
    January 26, 2016
    The London Borough of Camden has installed two Swarco Prism signs at either end of a width-restricted road in a bid to curb drivers using the road to avoid congestion during peak periods. The signs are timed to change at peak periods of day to create a short one-way section and ease traffic flow. Outside these hours, priority working signs manage the narrow stretch of road. The signs include integrated PC controls, which enable operators to remotely control and alter the timing of the switchover as req
  • NOCoE delivers data for diligent DOTs
    April 29, 2015
    David Crawford talks to Dennis Motiani about the role of the new National Operations Centre of Excellence. Consolidating the collective experience of the US transportation system’s management and operations (TSM&O) community, streamlining its information gathering, while cutting research times and costs are the key drivers behind the country’s new National Operations Centre of Excellence (NOCoE). Launched in January at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), this sets out to be a sin
  • Lufft’s MARWIS moves weather
    September 22, 2014
    A mobile road weather sensor is providing authorities with new options for monitoring road conditions and winter maintenance operations. Road and traffic engineers know the vulnerable points in their network – cold spots where ice forms first, high-banked roads where snow accumulates, fog pockets… Traditionally, most authorities will position weather stations at these points to detect and monitor road conditions during bad weather events.