Smart street light control system on cards for Muscat

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 18^th 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.