Dynamic Roadspace Utilisation Manager (DRUM)
The set-time 'first-cone-on, last-cone-off' approach to roadworks closures costs the UK highways industry untold sums every year in terms of missed opportunities and less-effective programme management. In response to this issue, TRL has developed a software tool called DRUM. |
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Award-winning DRUM delivers a new traffic management system for roadworks that's based not on rigid timetables but on the ebb and flow of traffic, thus allowing lane closures to begin earlier and finish later when the conditions are right. This in turn helps ensure traffic jams are reduced and enables the job to be completed more efficiently and cost-effectively.
The DRUM system is a combination of hardware and software that delivers a lightweight and agile solution. The hardware is supplied by MTS (www.ukmts.com) and comprises an environmentally friendly solar-recharged power source unit called the T-25. This unit is fitted with the Wavetronix Sensor HD, a side-fired microwave traffic sensor.
The software is a purely web-based service hosted on a server at TRL's headquarters. Using a series of software drivers the TRL server connects with radars positioned around a roadworks scheme to build up a real-time picture of the traffic conditions. By comparing this live picture with historical patterns, the system is able to predict optimal roadworks configurations on a rolling basis.
Users with the relevant access permissions can log-on to the DRUM website via any internet PC to view current and projected traffic conditions, along with roadspace utilisation plans. Crucially, this information can also be accessed from the roadside, through any internet-enabled mobile phone or PDA.
DRUM can be deployed to any dual carriageway or motorway in the UK or even abroad, as long as the GPRS network is available. It responds quickly to upcoming variations in capacity demand and helps minimise disruption to journey time reliability without compromising safety.
DRUM won the 2009 Highways Magazine Excellence Award for Highway Industry Product of the Year, against nearly 20 other would be winners.
If you're interested in learning more about the topics covered in this section, or you can't find what you're looking for and would like to talk to someone in detail about this topic, please email Trafficoperations@trl.co.uk
In an article in Issue 81 May 2010 edition of Innovation and Research Focus, John Mather of the Highways Agency talks about the successful deployment of DRUM on the HA Network. Click here to read the article.
