On April 26th 2007, Frankfurt saw the CENTRICO Award finally being presented to the staff of the traffic centre Hesse (VZH) and the public by Secretary of State Klaus-Peter Güttler, which had originally been received in Brussels in November 2006. With this prize, the CENTRICO project initiative (CENTRICO - Central European Region Transport Telematics Implementation Co-ordination) awards the best projects within 4 categories.
The competent jury - consisting of representatives from the CENTRICO member states Belgium, England, Germany, France, The Netherlands and members from the European Commission - rewarded the successful "Opening of the emergency lane" project amongst a crowd of 30 competitors with first place in the category "Best Traffic Management Project".
Presentation of the | Gerd Riegelhuth, VZH CEO,
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In case of a high traffic volume it is now possible to temporarily open the emergency lane for traffic on 4 sections of the A3 and the A5 on a length of about 52 km. The sections are video controlled and it is thus possible to detect precisely broken down vans or obstacles. When a traffic volume of 6.000 vehicles is exceeded, the traffic computer suggests opening the emergency lane for traffic.
During off-peak times the lane remains closed and in case of a breakdown the operator can immediately cancel the opening.
Since it is often financial and ecological arguments that speak against the physical expanding of a road section, this alternative does not only appeal to the road users. The positive resonance of the road users encouraged the Land of Hesse to extend the system to a further 20 km of road network.
Secretary of State Güttler thanked the project participants and stressed the great dedication of the staff of the VZH under the management of Gerd Riegelhuth.
Heusch/Boesefeldt GmbH was involved in the development as integrator of the software in the traffic centre and congratulated the VZH on their innovative traffic politics.
The opening of the emergency lane is part of the current project "Congestion-free Hesse", aiming at nothing less than to turn Hesse into a congestion-free area where free traffic flow is secured by 2015.