Fresh brain arrives to ease motorway chaos

By JASON COLLIE transport reporter

Auckland is to get its own super-smart motorway capable of controlling traffic with a web of copper feelers.

A central nervous system - run by a computer which automatically detects a hold-up and shuffles vehicles around it - was unveiled yesterday as the second phase of Transit New Zealand's $50 million Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS).

Transit hopes it will battle the paralysis that grips Auckland roads during a major motorway accident, stop hundreds of fender-benders and ease congestion.

The system, extensively used overseas, will be tested for a year between Esmonde Rd on the North Shore and Wellington St in the city before being extended southwards to Manukau and westwards to Western Springs.

Transit spokesman Derrick Hitchens said it would be based on copper wire loops in the motorway which are currently used to count traffic when vehicles pass them.

Under the $12.8 million scheme, those loops will be connected to fibre optic cables to feed "real time" information back to a computer.

When there is an accident the computer will automatically set off flashing amber warning lights on lane control signals - similar to those at present on the Harbour Bridge - while it starts working out which lanes are blocked.

Within five minutes it will alter control signals along the motorway to start moving drivers into the free lanes.

It will also alert operators at the Northcote management centre to post a warning on Transit's variable message signs.

Mr Hitchens said the system could indicate to motorists if there was a problem in a lane ahead of them, and advise them the speed traffic was flowing in lanes around the problem so they could adjust accordingly.

"Because drivers will get real-time information they will be told 300m to 600m further up there is a problem, instead of coming around a corner and finding a broken-down car.

"People will brake more naturally and we won't get this concertina effect and those nose-to-tail accidents."

However, the trial will not extend to Spaghetti Junction because of the massive alterations planned to fix the notorious bottleneck.

The system will also help during the rush-hours to manage congestion.

"Nothing we are doing here will make congestion go away, but it is a faster response system," Mr Hitchens added.

Transit has awarded the $12.8 million stage two contract to Philips Projects Australasia and Mr Hitchens said he hoped it would be working by Christmas next year.

As well as extending the lane signal system if the trial is successful, Transit plans to put variable message signs and closed-circuit television cameras along the Northwestern Motorway and between the Bombay Hills and Silverdale.

It would then be able to direct traffic away along Upper Harbour Drive if, for example, there was a gridlock similar to last year's ink spill on the Harbour Bridge.

The first stage of ATMS started last September with the message signs and closed-circuit system installed over the central motorway last year.