The Gotthard Tunnel in the Swiss Alps is considered to be one of the narrowest bottle-necks on the transit road between Northern and Southern Europe and one of the longest tunnels in the world (17 km).
In order to ensure higher security for the traffic flows, a new evolutionary road control installation allocates the vehicles to the appropriate lanes of the tunnel's gateway. This gateway can a be closed e.g. when the passage of the tunnel is impossible because of an accident.
The systematic metering of vehicles allows only a safe number of vehicles in the tunnel at the same time. Also, by means of a so-called drop control the trucks can be singularised so that bunching is avoided in the 17 kilometers long tunnel tube: This is especially important in case of fire in order to prevent the spreading of the flames.
The necessary signal switchings will be started automatically if there is a fire, if the allowed CO-concentration is exceeded or if stopped vehicles are detected. As all the communication facilities have a redundant structure, the system can still be controlled in the event of a defective cable or devices failure.
Goals are:
Installation Characteristics / Project Content
Realisation
Start of constructions: January 2004.
Begin of operation: September 2005.
The commission's total amounts to approx. € 3 millions
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