Introducing the WJ Control Centre
Monitoring CCTV through road works is a critical task that supports traffic management, ensuring incidents are dealt with quickly, helping keep the network moving and safeguarding the travelling public and the on-site workforce. However, it is often an expensive and long process to install individual, local control rooms, in addition to finding and training new staff that may be monitoring their first scheme to the necessary standards.
To alleviate these challenges, WJ Group has installed a dedicated central control room to monitor their CCTV solutions through road works.
Able to observe every CCTV camera system operated by WJ Group across the country, the Control Centre will allow highways authorities and principal contractors to outsource this vital service ensuring that any incidents at their locations are quickly spotted and reported to the correct authorities. WJ has stated there is also the capability to integrate third-party CCTV systems.
Following continued constraints on maintenance budgets, the additional costs of installing and maintaining around-the-clock monitoring can significantly impact budgets, especially in situations where only a few systems are required.
Housed at WJ Group’s depot in Stoke-on-Trent, the Control Centre negates the need for these additional costs. It is managed and operated by a highly trained monitoring and analysis team, offering continuous support 24/7, 365 days a year, with the potential to monitor up to 20 different schemes at any one time.
Tom Howarth, ITS Manager at WJ Group explained:
“Traditionally when working on a specific scheme, the contractor or highways authority would host a Control Centre to monitor all the ongoing activity occurring at sites, even if it was for a single location. We know from working with our partners that installing, organising and manning this can be expensive and time consuming, so to help mitigate the issue, we opted to expand our offering to include this alongside providing the CCTV cameras.”
As well as showing a live feed, WJ are already looking at how the capabilities of the Control Centre could be further improved in the future, such as linking traffic monitoring radars, allowing the team to be notified immediately if a vehicle has stopped. These radars would also highlight if there’s increased congestion, what the traffic flow is, the average speed through road works and various other metrics. This combination would allow for a more thorough report of the ongoings in the selected location. Another potential option includes managing Variable Messaging Signs (VMS) to ensure up to date information is communicated to road users quickly through a self-contained streamlined process.
Tom said:
“Our goal is for the control centre to not only be used for identifying stranded vehicles but monitoring more generally the road work process. We see our operatives in the control centre as being traffic management experts and understanding how traffic management works, and helping the site teams get traffic through the road works as safely as possible.
We want to work with highways maintenance departments, principal contractors and our other partners to relieve their stress and issues resulting in better road works and safety for the general public. With our expert team keeping a watchful eye on the sites, authorities can redistribute their resources to deliver other pressing matters, allowing for a more efficient operation.”
