Swarco wins US$40 million ‘ATAM’ ITS contract in Saudi Arabia

Austrian traffic technology supplier Swarco AG has been awarded a US$40 million contract for the second phase of the Automated Traffic Administration & Monitoring (ATAM) project for the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Qaseem. Several Swarco companies in Austria, Italy, Romania, Denmark and Saudi Arabia will provide a variety of technologies, including an integrated central software system, traffic controllers, LED traffic signals, LED variable message signs (VMS), CCTV video surveillance systems, and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) equipment for the intelligent traffic management system.

Riyadh-based contractor Al Masaar is currently erecting a new Command and Control Center building to house Swarco’s OMNIA central integrated platform, the open architecture of which means that any ITS application – including those used for Urban Traffic Control, public transport, parking, streetlights or VMS – can be integrated within it, irrespective of the supplier or technology involved. It enables any city or region to build its own ‘made-to-measure’ ITS environment, allowing new applications to be added or the services associated with existing applications to be modified when required.

“Over the course of the next 18 months, the two cities will receive each a new integrated control center to improve traffic flow and detect incidents at a total of 170 adaptively controlled intersections,” said Daniel Meier, head of Swarco’s Project Office in Wattens, Austria. “The OMNIA platform is a strategic investment for both the present and the future. Its effectiveness in managing ITS applications brings immediate returns as well as long-term benefits due to the support it gives in strategic planning. The ease of extending the platform to include new applications represents an advantage and ensures savings whenever legacy systems and new technologies have to be integrated.”

12 December 2011