Muscat: Muscat Municipality is conducting a test run of an intelligent central control system for the lighting network in Muscat to reduce the maintenance costs and better control functions.
“This system has many advantages such as that it allows timing
of lighting, which helps the control staff to change the schedule using the program. They can adjust the switch-on/off the lights as per the season and sunset/sunrise timings. Officials will be also able to extract the status reports of the lighting network across the network,” the report said.
The Directorate General of Projects has been carrying out a number of projects related to the lighting of streets, roads, in addition to supervising traffic signals for maintenance when there is a breakdown and reprogramming as per the traffic density.
During the period January 2018 – June 2018, the
maintenance teams of the service departments of the Municipality of Muscat were
restructured to follow up the maintenance work – five teams for the morning,
two for evening and a team to work during the midnight and early morning hours.
The lighting projects in the internal roads have
been completed in various areas of Muscat Governorate, including Amerat, Madinat Sultan Qaboos (MSQ), Muttrah, Seeb and Quriyat.
The Municipality of Muscat has taken efforts to
continue replacing the street lights with the energy-saving LED lights.
The Directorate General of Projects has replaced
1,045 LED lamps along the November 18 Street in Azaiba. The energy-saving
lighting at the Qurm Beach has been activated, covering a length of 1800m with
84 street poles.
On the road along the waterfront in Seeb, lights
have been installed over a 3,000 with 98 poles.
Municipal authorities have has also installed green
traffic light sensors that helped to reduce waiting times for drivers by 50 per
cent.
The Light Signal Department has begun testing the
system at intersections along 18th November 18 Street, which
operates on a green waves system that allows continuous traffic flows across
several intersections in one main direction.
Signals are coordinated between traffic lights,
according to sensor data from current traffic. When a signal turns green at an
intersection, it sends the next intersection a remote signal, which illuminates
the green signal there, as well. The traffic light will turn red, once it
receives a signal about the presence of vehicles at the next intersection.
According to the municipality, the results of the
18th November Street sensors indicate that the density of stopped cars waiting
at intersections was reduced by 50 per cent, compared to before the sensors
were installed, in addition to increasing the flow of traffic and reducing fuel
consumption.
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