Statens vegvesen (Norway's Public Roads Administration Company) is installing an innovative traffic monitoring system in Lyderhorn tunnel.

On the western edge of Bergen,Statens vegvesen is preparing a pilot installation for testing new technology that will improve traffic safety and accessibility on the Norwegian tunnel and road network.

The pilot project will test new measurement technology for automated tunnel monitoring, at lower lifetime costs than current systems.

The machines mill out narrow joints in the asphalt along the roadside, so that fiber cables can be laid. The milling makes some noise, and the water vapor rises from the machines while the job is in progress.

The tunnel's 1,115 meter long westbound run, on national road 555 towards Sotra, will be closed at night while the work takes place. The cable installation is the same as many of us know from our neighborhoods, where various telecom operators mill fiber cables into the asphalt and then cover with sealant.

The cable is laid along the entire length of the tunnel and 100 meters out on each side. The cable ends shall be routed to a reading unit which shall be located in a technical room west of the tunnel. This local unit analyzes the traffic data in real time and sends traffic alarms (such as stopped vehicles and vehicles in the wrong direction) on via the Norwegian Public Roads Administration's internal network to VTS.

After the necessary preparations and preparations have been made, the testing of the complete system starts during the year.

This is what the project is about:

The lowered fiber cable contains no electrical components or metals, and is maintenance-free with a service life of 25 years.

- This provides a more robust solution with lower installation and service life costs than today's automated systems that are based on cameras or radars installed relatively close to the tunnel roof. In such systems, the electronics are unfortunately exposed to moisture, dirt, road salt and collisions with vehicles that are too high. A fiber optic measuring system such as the one we are now testing will eliminate these disadvantages and therefore provide higher uptime on the road and better accessibility for road users, says project manager Ole Pedro Myklebostad in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

In future new installations of fiber-optic surveillance systems, the tunnels will continue to be equipped with operator-controlled video cameras, for use by the Norwegian Road Administration for visual confirmation of received traffic alarms. Such manually operated cameras do not have automated registration of events, but are cheaper in procurement and maintenance than cameras that have it.
Continuously measures the individual vehicle in the tunnel

The technology is called Trafsense, and has been developed since 2015 by the Bergen company Trafsys AS in collaboration with the research institute NORCE AS (formerly Christian Michelsen Research AS) and with partial funding from the Research Council and Innovation Norway.

- We hope with our technology to be able to contribute to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, and thus society, getting more for their money in the form of lower lifetime costs for their monitoring systems, says project manager Erling Kolltveit in Trafsys.

He emphasizes that optical measurement technology has existed for many years, well known from, for example, the oil and gas industry.

- And here we may contribute a little to the green shift by using technology taken from the fossil fuel industry to, among other things, reduce energy consumption in the transport sector.

As far as Trafsys AS knows, the Lyderhorn tunnel will be the world's first pilot installation of an automated fiber optic system that continuously measures both the position of the individual vehicle meter by meter along the road, and in addition reads out the lane and direction of travel for the vehicle.

Trafsys has received support for the pilot project through Innovation Norway's Pilot T project program.
Will test out 2023

The evaluation period for the new technology will be 2023.

- The system's performance for all data from all conceivable traffic patterns at all times of the day and year is thoroughly evaluated and compared with today's camera-based system, Kolltveit adds.

The Lyderhorn tunnel has an average daily traffic of 41,046. This is called year-round traffic (ÅDT).

- The system can also provide other positive effects, such as contributing information to the emergency services in the event of an incident, for example in the event of a fire where they can plan their efforts according to where the vehicles have stopped in the tunnel. In the future, we hope that this technology can also be used for other safety functions in traffic, concludes Ole Pedro Myklebostad in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

source for everything in this post is https://kommunikasjon.ntb.no/pressemelding/statens-vegvesen-tester-ny-teknologi-i-lyderhorntunnelen-skal-gi-bedre-trafikkovervakning?publisherId=17847490&releaseId=17930612