Smart deal saves $8m on cable job

Auckland's super-smart motorway monitoring system will cost nothing to hook up.

Transit New Zealand had estimated that it would cost up to $8 million to lay fibre-optic cables along the motorway to connect its Advanced Traffic Management System equipment.

But a deal with Telstra Saturn means the company will install the cables free.

Telstra Saturn will also lay fibre-optics for its own telecommunications business, including branching into the Auckland business and residential market with voice, data, internet and video services.

The fibre-optic cable will connect to Transit's copper loop "feelers," which now count traffic, enabling them to transmit live information about holdups and accidents.

Transit will then flash warnings on its electronic message boards and move vehicles out of the affected lanes using lane-control signals under the $50 million scheme.

The motorway between Greville Rd, on the North Shore, Western Springs and the Newmarket Viaduct is expected to go live by late 2001.

The rest of the Auckland motorway - between Silverdale and the Bombay Hills - will be live within five years.

Transit's regional traffic operations manager, Derrick Hitchens, said the authority had previously been against allowing companies to install services alongside the motorway corridor, but this deal had benefits.

"By simply allowing a facility to be used, we have saved $5 million to $8 million of taxpayers' money."