HATMS
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Peek has been a major supplier of Motorway Control and Communication systems for over 15 years. The Highways Agency Traffic Management System (HATMS) is the latest version of the system, and has been installed within four of the seven Regional Control Centres (RCCs) from which the Highways Agency (HA) operate the road network. The system provides an integrated Microsoft Windows based Operator Interface (OIF) from which the HA Operator can respond to incident calls from emergency roadside telephones, can implement settings on message signs and matrix signals and can monitor on-road congestion levels in real-time. |
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Many sign and signal setting are made automatically by the system in response MIDAS (Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signaling) alerts or meteorological detectors indicating reduced visibility or high wind speeds.
Whilst the HATMS system is essentially the same at each RCC, the system and site data are not. It is this data which describes the road network and its associated control and monitoring devices in great detail. Whenever there is a change in the road network provision within any RCC, new maps showing all roadside devices are prepared and tested prior to implementation. All RCCs will achieve full service in 2006. This will require that the transfer of control from older Police Control Office systems has been completed. Peek has a programme of RCC system and site data upgrades in place to achieve these key milestones.
The system controls and monitors the performance of roadside devices through a hierarchy of intermediate control devices. Peek manufactured Standard LCCs (Local Communications Controllers) and Standard Transponders provide connectivity to literally thousands of roadside devices.
These intermediate devices monitor and control their local area networks, regularly checking that all end devices are operational and are displaying the requested aspects. Any faults are immediately reported back to the central HATMS which will then automatically alert the appointed maintenance contractor and log the fault both locally and on HALOGEN (the centralised Highways Agency Logging Environment).
Peek have provided the Emergency Telephone System for all seven RCCs. This system has been designed to be fault tolerant with each of either six or twelve lines (depending on the RCC size) effectively operating independently. Calls are detected independently by each Telephone Line Controller (TLC) and presented to the HA Operators at the OIF. An Inter Panel Link Unit (IPLU) provides arbitration between TLCs, allows calls to be transferred between Operators and collates system logging for onward transmission to HATMS.