Atlas, the allied road safety system from Campania

The European campaign Truck & Bus promoted by Roadpol, the network of European Traffic Police, has made it possible to carefully monitor the quality of heavy traffic on roads throughout Europe. During the surveys carried out at the end of 2023, it emerged that over 30% of the heavy vehicles subjected to inspection were not in compliance: out of 245,500 trucks checked, 79,152 infringements were detected. Among the most frequent violations, which can have important repercussions on road safety and the infrastructures themselves, there are: exceeding the permitted driving times without respecting mandatory breaks, excess load compared to the limit or incorrectly securing it. «A truck that exceeds the weight permitted by current legislation represents a potential threat, because in the event of impact against a longitudinal barrier, it may not be adequately redirected, breaking it and causing serious damage to other vehicles in circulation, even falling from an overpass. Furthermore, an excess load makes the braking system of the vehicle less efficient” he reports Roberto Impero, CEO of Sma Road Safety, Campania excellence that invests in research and innovation to develop life-saving solutions dedicated to passive road and infrastructure safety. After designing innovative emergency gates, crash attenuators, smart side barriers and traffic monitoring systems, the company turned towards dynamic weighing systems. «The deteriorated concrete of many bridges and viaducts, which has hit the news in recent years, has highlighted the issue of the danger of overloading road infrastructures – adds Roberto Impero – which is why we considered it useful to invest in a product that was complementary to passive road safety» . Italy, it should not be forgotten, is the European country with the highest number of bridges on its motorway network, equal to 14% of the total km (the European average is 2.6%) and in 2024 it will be 100 years old, the oldest network on the continent. Therefore, a system for protecting the road infrastructure is crucial.

For this reason, Sma Road Safety designed the innovative Atlas device, previewed at Intertraffic Amsterdam. It measures the weight of trucks on the road while they are moving, identifying overloaded vehicles, recording their license plate and sending an alert to the road manager who will notify the police. «The optimum is achieved by installing Atlas at toll booths, to stop the vehicle before it even enters the motorway – continues Impero – In practice Atlas is like a tutor, but instead of measuring the speed, it weighs the vehicle when it passes with the wheels on special plates installed on the asphalt”.

The latest generation wim (weigh in motion) technology used by Atlas allows the control of vehicles even at high speed, revolutionizing the methods of monitoring heavy traffic compared to traditional static weighing, which causes slowdowns and does not allow real-time measurement. «We thought of a solution that could represent added value for our roads, facilitating and reducing installation times and costs and maintenance practices. Atlas is therefore supplied already assembled on a reinforced concrete base, while the robustness of the load cells used makes only one inspection per year necessary”, concludes Roberto Impero.

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