Are we there yet?

Because Britain’s most popular holiday destination, Cornwall, is served by only one road, queues of traffic are inevitable at busy times.

To make matters worse, the road begins as a motorway, falls in status to a dual carriageway …and finally narrows to an overloaded single carriageway before you’ve actually arrived anywhere to speak of.

A four-year, £330M pound project to relieve congestion has recently been completed – which inevitably brought problems of its own whilst work was ongoing.

In order to mitigate the increased disruption which attends major road improvement schemes, mobile 24 hour CCTV diverted-traffic monitoring was essential …but how would they be provided with reliable power? Trenching and retrenching grid electricity to them was out of the question because of cost – as was providing them with diesel generators because National Highways (the body responsible for UK strategic roads) operate a Net-Zero Carbon Plan.

WJ Sunstone provided the solution: Seventeen surveillance cameras powered by the sun and equipped with batteries for energy storage, ensured road safety and site security at live locations over the considerable work-area. Their autonomy allowed them to be deployed and redeployed at constantly changing locations within minutes.

WJ Sunstone’s Autonomous Remote Communications Unit (ARC) can be fitted with a range of camera types to provide high-definition, thermal and radar images. Typically they use a High-Definition PTZ Camera with a video resolution of 1080p; 32 x Optical Zoom; optimised for Long-Range IR laser illumination for clear night-viewing. Images are monitored remotely using a high speed connection.

The units are also equipped with public address, local lighting and a geolocation security device to protect them against vandalism and theft.

What’s in the box?

• Solar energy from the built-in 800W solar array is harvested by a SmartSolar MPPT 150/35 solar charge controller.
• During the day energy is stored into a Deep-Cycle AGM 400Ah battery bank which allows twenty-four hour operation – even at sub-zero temperatures.
• In order to avoid the batteries becoming too depleted, a Smart BatteryProtect cuts off the power supply in case of low State-of-Charge before the batteries can be damaged.
• The power flow is monitored by a SmartShunt 500A and provides detailed real-time and historic information about the battery status.
  
• Orion DC/DC converter  – these units are used to provide precise DC voltage to sensitive equipment and for stepping up/down the battery voltage to the load voltage.
• A Color Control GX communication device harmonises the system performance and provides live data to WJ Sunstone engineers – in this case via a 4G LTE Router/Gateway – to the internet based, free-to-use, Victron Remote Management (VRM) platform. This allows instant monitoring and problem spotting of all deployed devices without visiting site.

The deployment of the ARC system on the A30 project delivered exceptional results, proving to be a sustainable, efficient and cost effective solution. The most striking achievement was the realisation of net-zero operation, with the ARC systems’ solar-powered design directly fulfilling the project’s environmental mandates – yielding substantial carbon savings.

Using the ARC surveillance system was beneficial to the local environment, too – reducing local pollution because of the system’s silent, emissions-free operation.

Crucially, the system delivered reliable, high-quality surveillance feeds, streamed seamlessly over LTE, enhancing traffic management and operational control.

WJ Group Chief Executive Officer, Wayne Johnstone said: “We’re exceptionally proud of what we have been able to deliver on this scheme. The implementation of the solar CCTV units along the A30 has proven to be a more cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly solution compared to traditional hardwired solutions.”   

The headline image is by Lewis Clarke.