CASE STUDY – Traffic light system – Boulogne sur mer

About the project

In April 2014, the Nord-Pas de Calais region asked Mobilis to replace towers and the remote control and supervision system of traffic lights at the Port of Boulogne-sur- Mer. This huge project has improved traffic control and visibility of lights while avoiding glare of non-users of the Port.
This is from a single control console at touch screen, simple to use and ergonomic, installed at the harbor, that operators can control and monitor the state of traffic lights. They then control 56 lights mounted on 5 pylons placed in strategic positions
of the Port.
Installed lights are high-tech LED lights, very low energy consumption and a lifetime of 10 years.
The control system is carried out by radio and secure via redundancy. Alerts instantly warn operators in case of failure.

Challenges of the project

The 56 lights are spread over 5 towers of the Port. MOBILIS had to solve several problems :

Ensure a radio coverage of the Port ;
Ensure the visibility of lights with automatic adjustment and / or manual brightness ;
Ensure complex coverage by taking into account angles of horizontal coverage and variable vertical divergence ;
Avoid glare from non-users of the Port ;
Ensure an extremely robust and autonomous tower energy as completely isolated at the end of the Digue Carnot and exposed to violent sea conditions ;
Integrate the existing system for the relay control in case of failure of the system.

Features of lights used

Highly resistant to corrosion ;
Very high-quality -Lifetime of 10 years ;
Directional light to avoid disruptions of unaffected users ;
The intensity of the lights adjusts to ambient light.

Different sites concerned

Carnot dige

The most powerful LEDs lights have been installed on the dam Carnot. An extremely robust galvanized steel tower was designed to withstand the extreme conditions of the exposed areas. Of adjustable height in portion of 5m, it allows a despointement of less than 1 ° in the harshes weather conditions. In addition, it was necessary to deport a solar generator housed on the dam to power the lights.

North East Pier Dock, Pier South West Inner Harbour, Cuvette,
Gambetta

At each of these positions, it was necessary to dismantle the tower and port lights existing to replace them with a new tower with its system of LED lights.
All lights are remotely controlled via radio remote controls via the console. They are mounted on aluminum poles specially designed for marine conditions whose height is adapted to the needs (3m, 5m or 7m). The pylons are electrically powered but have battery backup in case of power failure. In addition, if a failure occurs, the captaincy is directly informed by the MODBUS system of Mobilis.

A total of 56 lights are installed at 5 locations of the Port. Models of lights vary in function of the intensity or area coverage required. LED 350 LED 155 and LS100 are remotely controlled directly from the touch panel of the captaincy. Thus, the status of each light can be viewed and controlled
remotely from a MODBUS application. Radio back validation state change signal to confirm the operation and ensure that lights signals have greatly changed according to the request of the operator. In case of problem, a visual and audible warning will then appear on the screen in the form of flashing background card port.

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