| Advanced Communications In Transportation |
| Hungary’s M3 Motorway Opens With State-of-the-Art
Communication Systems |
| By Joseph Edge, Budapest, Hungary, 011-361-203-0555
X211, joedge@attglobal.net
and Donald McWilliams, Rockville, Maryland 1-301-816-1835,
mcwilliams@pbworld.com |
| A high-tech, state-of-the-art communications system
provides toll collection, video surveillance and security, weather
information and other sophisticated systems on the recently opened
M3 Motorway in Hungary. |
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M3 Motorway Communications
Toll System Data Communication
Fiber-Optic Technologies
Video Surveillance
Security Systems
Internal Telephone
Emergency Road Telephones
Weather Information
Traffic Monitoring Systems
UHF Radio and Cellular Phone
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Hungary recently celebrated the opening of the first 113 kilometers
(70 miles) of its new toll motorway, the M3. This first section extends
east from the Hungarian capital of Budapest to the town of Fuzesabony,
high in the great central agricultural plain of eastern Hungary (Figure
1). The next 61-kilometer (38-mile) section of M3 is being prepared
for international tender. Once this section is completed, the motorway
will connect the country’s population centers to its remote
counties, providing much greater access to the region’s industrial,
mining and agricultural resources and opening up the area for potential
tourism. It will also be a link in the European Transportation Channel
that extends from Lisbon, Portugal, to Moscow, Russia, and it will
promote Hungary’s integration into the European Community.
Hundreds of new jobs have been created to operate and maintain the
new 4-lane M3, which is Hungary’s first semi-closed type toll
motorway. Construction costs for the first section were about 42 billion
Forints ($215 million U.S.).
The owner, EKM Autopalya Rt. (EKMA), is a limited corporation formed
by the Hungarian government solely to develop and operate M3 and to
act as its contracting agency. PB was selected as EKMA’s engineer
in joint venture with Utiber, Kft., a Hungarian construction management
firm, to provide various engineering and construction services throughout
this design-build, turnkey project. This choice seemed a logical extension
of our earlier work on the M3 Motorway feasibility studies conducted
by the New York office in 1995.
Figure 1: M3 Motorway, Sections A and B |
Need for State-of-the-Art Communications
EKMA decided early in the development stages of the motorway that
a high-tech, state-of-the-art communications system was needed. Operating
a toll motorway is more than just collecting tolls, and EKMA established
the following as its goals: secure the toll collection, provide quality
service to customers and provide easier operations for staff.
The newly opened section of M3 has:
- Eleven interchanges, each with one to three
toll plazas and a plaza control building (Figure 2 on the following
page)
- Two operation centers, one at Godollo and one at Kal, that
also function as maintenance and storage facilities.
Table 1: Pre-paid tolls on M3 Motorway in Hungary
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Tolls on the closed system are 9 Forints (about $0.04) per kilometer.
Pre-paid cards, available on an annual or monthly basis (Table 1),
allow unlimited travel within the system. Five sites have been established
along the motorway for the purchase of pre-paid cards, each with a
waiting room for customers, facilities for staff and the production
hardware for magnetic encoding and embossing of the cards.
Telecommunications Backbone
The backbone of the M3 telecommunication system is a fiber cable with
20 single-mode fibers. This cable is installed in a separate conduit
alongside a bundled cable of twisted copper pairs for serial communications
in a trench on the north side of the motorway. The north plaza control
buildings have a fiber-optic multiplexing hub, where interchange data
are multiplexed onto the fibers connected to the two operations centers.
The 34-megabits/second system allows real time transmission of the
toll and video surveillance data, as well as the internal telephone
network. Surplus capacity in the fiber cable is dedicated to future
M3 communication needs and to possible third party lease contracts
with businesses such as the national telephone company.
Figure 2: Typical Plaza Control Building |
Toll Communication System
The toll system is sophisticated, combining open and closed systems
and the pre-paid subscriber system. One main toll plaza across the
motorway proper (Figure 3) is located near Budapest for westbound
traffic. At each of the eleven interchanges, transactions are made
at the toll booths and plaza control buildings. The toll administration
system is housed at M3’s primary operation center at Godollo.
In the closed portion of the system, entering customers are issued
a magnetic encoded transit ticket from one of the 18 automatic ticket
dispensers. On exit from the motorway, the ticket is presented at
one of the 38 manual payment lanes for toll calculation and payment.
In the open portion of the system, customers from Budapest, who are
not issued a ticket, pay a fixed toll corresponding to the exit plaza.
Pre-paid subscribers, who are part of the open system regardless of
entry plaza, present a magnetic encoded plastic card at exit and pay
no toll.
The toll system architecture is hierarchical, as follows:
- It starts at the individual manual payment
lanes and automatic ticket lane computers using the QNX operating
system.
- It progresses to the plaza computer systems
(PCS) at the plaza control buildings that collect and manage the
various manual payment lane transaction data. (The PCS computers
use an OS-2 operating system.)
- From the PCS, data flow to the toll administration
system (TAS) located at the main operations center in Godollo,
where data are stored in a Standard Query Language (SQL) database.
The entire system is managed and administered from the Godollo
operations center.
- Data also flows downward periodically from
the TAS to the PCS stations and manual payment lane stations as
toll tables, pre-paid subscriber, and foreign currency exchange
updates.
Each level in the toll computer system provides specific functions
with increased reporting and statistical control as data flow upward
in the hierarchy.
The TAS architecture is an Ethernet local area network (LAN) with
one server and several personal computer workstations. The LAN management
system operates in a Windows NT environment and the operating system
of the workstations is Windows 95. The database is maintained on the
server in an SQL format with Microsoft Access.
Multi-mode fiber-optic cables connect the plazas at each interchange.
Customer transaction information is multiplexed at the plaza control
building and transmitted along the fiber-optic backbone, connecting
all the interchanges, administration buildings and the five pre-paid
card sites at 64 kbit/sec or 2 Mbit/sec, depending on facility needs.
The TAS also includes the pre-paid subscriber and bank credit card
workstation. An external connection to agencies and banks is provided
by a telephone link using an X.25 protocol.
Figure 3: Eight-lan Exit Barrier and Control Center at
Godollo |
Supporting Communication Systems
M3 communication systems include video surveillance and security,
traffic counting and monitoring, weather information, emergency telephone,
and a private automatic branch exchange (PABX) telephone system. To
facilitate the motorway management along the 113 kilometers (70 miles),
this information is transmitted to both of the operation centers.
Video Surveillance and Security. The video surveillance
system consists of:
- 132 digital color cameras located on fixed
mounts at the toll plazas and administration buildings to provide
security and plaza monitoring. (The digital signals are converted
for analog multiplexing.)
- 15 digital black and white cameras mounted on 10-meter (33-foot)
-high poles with pan-tilt-zoom units located along the motorway
to monitor traffic conditions.
Camera views of each interchange are available on two monitors in
that interchange’s plaza control building. All camera views
are available at the Godollo and Kal operation centers on 22 monitors
with recording capability of all camera views simultaneously. Automatic
camera switching programs are available, as is a very useful video
management system operating on the Windows NT operating system. The
analog video multiplexing allows twenty real-time color video signals
on each fiber connection.
Integrated into the video system is a security system that services
each toll booth and plaza control building, as well as all operations
and administration buildings. The system provides alarms and automatic
video switching to, and recording of, incident areas.
Figure 4: Weather Information facilitates EKMA maintenance work. |
Traffic Monitoring. The traffic monitoring systems
provide vital traffic data such as volumes, speeds, and classifications
along the M3 and the peripheral local roadways. The traffic counting
and classification system, developed by Signalit, has eight stations
along the motorway using serial communication twisted pair copper
cables. Maestro, a separate advanced traffic analysis system that
was developed by the Budapest Technical University, uses the video
images of the motorway cameras to perform analyses. Four electronic
variable message signs (VMS) on overhead gantries and four smaller
roadside VMS provide traveler information on weather and traffic conditions.
Weather Information. The weather information system,
developed by MicKS of Germany, is particularly useful given the extremes
in weather conditions throughout the motorway (Figure 4). Winters
in Hungary can be harsh and heavy fog conditions prevail. Sixteen
separate weather-monitoring stations have been established to give
useful information such as temperature, humidity, visibility, wind
speed and direction, precipitation, snow depth and pavement icing
conditions.
Weather information is transmitted over the twisted pair copper cables
in a half-duplex serial communication protocol and reported at the
two operation centers on software using the Windows NT operating system.
The system is used to alert EKMA maintenance crews to deploy salt
trucks to icy roadway sections. Visibility sensors detect dangerous
fog conditions and prompt operations staff to display advisory messages
to motorists on the VMS boards.
Other Systems. Other systems include the emergency
road telephone system, which provides stations every 2 km (1.2 miles),
and a PABX telephone system using integrated service digital network
(ISDN) communication systems that link all toll booths, control buildings
and operation centers. Also included are an ultra-high frequency (UHF)
radio system and a cellular phone system for maintenance and service
vehicle communications. The combined internal communications approach
has proved to be very reliable and convenient.
Key Players
EKMA, a limited corporation formed by
the Hungarian government solely to develop and operate M3
and to act as its contracting agency.
Utiber, Kft., PB’s joint venture
partner.
MHK, design and construction contractor.
Egis Projects (formerly Transroute International),
a French firm that supplied the toll systems and equipment
including software and hardware, and provided technical
training to EKMA operators.
Siemens Rt. of Hungary, a subsidiary of
Siemens, the giant communications technology conglomerate
from Germany, provided the communications backbone cables
and communications systems for the entire motorway.
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Collaboration was Key to Project’s
Success
The staff in our Budapest office, PB’s first central European
office, managed design reviews and engineering supervision with extensive
monitoring and control of the installation of equipment, factory equipment
testing, field testing and certification of proper operation for the
entire system. We received contract management support from the London
office, technical support for the variety of specialties found in
the M3 system from our ITS specialists in the Rockville, Maryland
office and valuable administration support from the Newcastle, UK
office. Utiber, Kft. provided design reviews and construction and
engineering supervision of the roadway, bridges, underpasses, plazas,
lighting, maintenance buildings, and other roadway structures.
Throughout the two and a half year project, PB’s close cooperation
with Utiber proved to be very successful. Effective coordination among
the other international participants, which was also vital to the
project’s success, was maintained between EKMA and the Hungarian-led
international consortium, M Harom Konzorcium (MHK), whose team included
companies from Hungary, France, Germany and Portugal.
Summary
Opened in January 1999, this major highway toll system has been providing
services for many thousands of first time users. The good-natured
approach of the Hungarian toll collectors and EKMA’s diligent
attention to the details of this complex highway system have been
essential to M3’s early success.
M3 is now the predominant route between the Ukraine and Budapest and
already shows significant use by trucks traveling beyond Budapest
to Vienna, Austria. Before M3, local roads were used to make much
of the trip. The
revenue from the use of M3 will be used to operate and maintain the
motorway, and to help pay for the financing supported by several European
banks.
Hungary’s M3 project is a bold new step for this prospering,
developing nation. During the course of the work, much was learned
about integrating a wide range of communication technologies in an
efficient public service. Hungary can certainly look forward to expanding
the knowledge acquired on M3 and applying it throughout the national
motorway development program. PB is proud to have contributed to this
effort. |
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| Joe Edge is a PB certified project manager with
experience in civil infrastructure and communication projects, particularly
relating to highways and railways. He has worked on such projects
in Manila, Philippines and Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey.
Donald McWilliams, Ph.D., is a physicist engineer with broad experience
in technical systems and software development. Much of his experience
has been in advanced traffic management systems
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