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Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure awards Siemens Mobility new traffic management contract

Posted: 7 March 2019 | | No comments yet

Northern Ireland’s DfI has worked with Siemens Mobility for over 25 years and the new contract will see them continue to work together for at least the next four.

City of Belfast

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) in Northern Ireland has awarded Siemens Mobility a new four-year contract following the expiry of the previous contact at the end of January 2019. The contract covers both the maintenance and development of the existing traffic management systems, which are largely located in Belfast.

The scope of the new contract includes both the maintenance of the authority’s existing locally-deployed systems, and the ongoing delivery of a dedicated IP-communications network which connects 328 urban traffic control (UTC) sites to the central Siemens Mobility UTC and SCOOT system. The new contract is expected to migrate the legacy systems to a cloud-hosted Software-as-a-Service solution over the next three years.

Commenting on the new contract, Wilke Reints, Managing Director of Siemens Mobility’s Intelligent Traffic Systems business in the UK, said: “Having worked closely with the DfI team for more than twenty five years, we are delighted to have been awarded this new contract to not only continue, but also build on our work together. We are pleased to be introducing our new UTC-UX system to Northern Ireland as part of the contract, which will provide an easy to use, intuitive and fully-hosted system for the traffic management team.”

The new UTC-UX system operates directly from a web browser and features at-a-glance screens, junction status, a choice of maps, quick links and intuitive control features. Siemens Mobility says its upgraded control system enables users to quickly and easily explore a controlled junction and its associated equipment.

The new contract will also see Siemens introduce a cloud-hosted highways management system, replacing the current systems.

Reints continued: “With digitalisation, we are helping mobility operators worldwide to make their networks and infrastructure more intelligent and ultimately enhance their road-users’ experience. Moving to Stratos will help achieve this, providing the authority with a fully-managed software service and enabling it to meet the challenges of running Northern Ireland’s road network now and well into the future.”