$6.5 million centre to monitor Auckland's traffic

Aucklanders stuck in motorway gridlock will be able to seehow late they're going to be when 14 electronic Estimated Journey Time signs golive on Monday.

The EJT signs will display information gathered from theinductive loops built into the state highways that monitor the speed vehiclesare travelling and transmit the data via fibre cables back to a new TrafficOperations Centre in the Smales Farm development at Northcote.

The centre, which was built for $6.5 million and has a forecastoperating budget of $1.1 million, was built in partnership with the NZTransport Agency (NZTA) and Auckland councils. It is the “nerve centre” for trafficmanagement in the region, monitoring 200 closed circuit cameras located near700 intersections across greater Auckland, as well as traffic on the statehighways.

Technical services manager Paul Demain says the informationis used to better manage traffic flows around Auckland. For example, if anose-to-tail accident occurs on the motorway, staff at the centre can alter thetiming of on-ramp signals to help mitigate gridlock. The addition of EJT signsare designed to inform motorists about traffic flows and are partof the NZTAs push to get more real-time traffic information out to the public, thereby enabling them to choose alternative routes and avoid congestion.

NZTA regional director for Auckland Wayne McDonald saystraffic congestion is estimated to cost the region $1 billion a year. “Webelieve the services provided by the Traffic Operations Centre will reduce thecost of congestion by at least $50 million per year.”

To get an idea of the amount of data being processed by thecentre there are 144 cores of fibre coming into the building and inside thereis 30kms of cable. The NZTA has a private fibre optic network in Auckland whichdelivers data at 1.5Gbps.

The centre was built from the ground up in just six monthsby a team of around 60 IT engineers and contractors who were divided into tenwork streams, including building services, fibre optic, network infrastructure,voice infrastructure, traffic monitoring and controls, video wall, testing andlogistics.

It was opened today by a number of local dignitaries – North Shore MP WayneMapp, North Shore mayor Andrew Williams, Auckland mayor John Banks and Manukaumayor Len Brown.

Photo: The IT team responsible for building the new AucklandTraffic Operations Centre.