West Berkshire Council and highway maintenance partner, VolkerHighways are leading on a countywide initiative to invest £225k in state-of-the-art thermal sensors that are fixed to street lighting columns along winter maintenance routes and on winter gritting vehicles. The data from the new sensors will be integrated into the Council’s winter forecast process allowing more informed decisions to be made on when roads should be treated.
This project is a continuation of the Smart City Cluster project , which is a £2.1m Internet of Things (IoT) project funded through a Local Growth Fund capital grant from Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership. The Thames Valley Berkshire Smart City Cluster is a collaboration between the six Berkshire authorities: West Berkshire, Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell, Slough and the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead.
The real-time data gained during the winter season will enable West Berkshire Council and VolkerHighways to optimise winter gritting routes in the future. The sensors have already been installed and data collection has begun showing road surface temperatures on all treated roads in West Berkshire.
The target is to reduce the number of treatments across Berkshire by 40% by 2027, minimising the use of salt and resulting in a CO 2 e reduction of approx. 26 tonnes per annum.
(Picture – VolkerHighways)
