Highway M-40 is presently the most outlying loop in the city of Madrid. Once it is opened, more than 150,000 vehicles are expected to travel along the Cierre Norte stretch whose design required that a tunnel be built and the two roads be superimposed on an adjacent in cut section. It was thus a priority to install a system complete with vehicle, smoke, CO, fire and accident detectors; help posts and closed circuit TV cameras to guarantee maximum road safety and monitor environmental conditions. The systems is also equipped with variable computerized and standardized signalling, lighting and ventilation control, blocking and emergency systems to allow for quick decision-making in the event of an accident. All the above are integrated into a Control Centre. The communications and control system was developped and installed with the most advanced client/server software engineering technology. This paper explains the architecture of the system and presents some representational examples of the operational system at work. (A)
Abstract