By Ben Parsons – business development director, SRL Traffic Systems
Constant technological innovation is the defining feature of our intelligent transport system (ITS) sector. Rapid technological advances expand the potential of our products to facilitate highways that are increasingly safe and more efficient for road users, road workers and pedestrians alike. Yet for us to truly embrace this potential, the industry needs to take a far more rigorous approach to quality standards to ensure that the traffic management products that characterise our highways are of the highest possible quality.
TOPAS (Traffic Open Products and Specifications) provides local authorities and traffic management contractors with a straightforward system via which they may verify traffic control and associated equipment against a set of stringent quality criteria. Evolving in line with technological innovation, the procurement specifications facilitate the easy identification of products meeting the highest technical standards that have undergone TOPAS’ rigorous independent technical assessment process.
It is overseen by a venerable management board comprising representatives from the Department for Transport, Transport Scotland, Welsh Government, Transport N.I., the Association for Road Traffic Safety and Management (ARTSM) and the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) Traffic Systems Group (TSG), along with users and manufacturers.
TOPAS specifications are intended to be used to aid purchasers and whilst not mandatory, the requirement for registration may be required by individual purchasing contracts. But while the majority of local authorities and traffic management companies stipulate TOPAS registration in the purchase of permanent ITS, many still fail to do so when hiring portable and temporary equipment.
Local authorities often tend to assume that the lead contractor will take care of product certifications. But their contractors are all too often either unaware of the latest standards or they assume that product manufacturers will automatically ensure that their equipment is appropriately certified. This pervading assumption that all ITS manufacturers supply solutions that meet the latest TOPAS certification is sadly misplaced.
What we’re left with is a scenario in which traffic management companies deliver contracts using portable and temporary ITS that is not always of the highest standard, compromising both the safety and efficiency of our roads.
TOPAS 2540A is a new specification, facilitating the responsible procurement of mobile traffic and pedestrian signals used in non-motorway settings. As well as superseding multiple existing standards covering standalone temporary traffic and pedestrian control products (Draft 2501A, 2502B, 2503B, 2537A and 2538A), 2540A incorporates signal solutions that feature integrated traffic and pedestrian solutions which were rare when the previous standards were launched and therefore not included. Technology has evolved and the new TOPAS certification reflects that.
Manufacturers’ registration of their temporary and portable signals against the new TOPAS 2540A standard enables customers to quickly identify and hire safe and effective integrated systems without the need to review complex product spec sheets; they also need only search for a single standard in relation to standalone signals.
SRL has recently become one of the first manufacturers to achieve the new TOPAS 2540A registration, launching its UltraLight portable traffic signal and REMOS remotely operated signal solution at Highways UK this year. In future, all of its new traffic signals will be 2540A certified. We already have a fleet of the latest TOPAS 2516D registered variable message signs (VMS) and are focused on gaining additional certifications for further product categories in the very near future.
The industry must work together if we are to effectively harness the many opportunities presented to us by the rapid and ongoing technological evolution that defines the ITS sector, effectively embracing innovation in the quest for safer and more efficient highways. TOPAS product registration and procurement specification – in the hire as well as purchase markets – will help us to achieve this.
PIC-SRL
