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They have got to be kidding!
It has been obvious that drivers have had difficulty with 40 k/mh school zones since they were introduced.
Not that the average drivers doesn't want to slow down, but to know where school zones are, and when school zone time is the problem.
Flashing lights on the school zone signs have proven to be effective in making drivers aware of when it's school zone time, and and where school zones are.
So the RTA reluctantly is installing flashing lights and at the rate they are doing it (100) a year my great great grandchildren might see the last NSW school get them.
The cost is one reason why it will take so long.
Why does everything done by the public service have to cost so much?
This is why.......
Instead of using flashing lights like these or similar, that are working quite nicely at schools in Peakhurst/Lurgano, lights that are simple,(relatively speaking) cheap and do the job,
it appears that they have to be ridiculously complicated and hideously expensive before they get the necessary tag of "State of the art" and
are suitable, as the press release below explains.
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MEDIA RELEASE
16 June 2008
RTA Over-specifies School Zone Flashing Lights
There is an RTA tender out at present that closes on 24th June for the supply of school zone flashing lights at another 50 schools by 30th June 2009. See https://tenders.nsw.gov.au/rta/shared/rftdetail.cfm?p_id=18031&p_criteria=RTA%2E08%2E2587%2E0998&p_advert=0
It is little wonder that the lights cost $58,000 per sign and hence will never be installed at all schools. The RTA has gone so totally over the top with the design specification that it would be impossible for anyone to design and produce lights for less. A specification for the life support system on the Space Shuttle would be less exacting.
The technical specification (attached) runs to 126 pages and that is just one of nine documents in the tender. And this is just for part of the system, the flashing lights and "lights controller".
There is a separate component called an "Alert Device Controller" which decides when the lights should be turned on and off. It is the subject of a separate tender. It in turn is controlled by the RTA's mainframe computer system.
What we are talking about is simply making a pair of lights flash for two periods per day. I have demonstrated that it can be done reliably and accurately for $350 yet the RTA has turned that simple process into a complex and expensive nightmare:
1. There are three controllers to make each sign flash, a lights controller on the sign, a separate Alert Device Controller, and the mainframe computer system, with an extensive computer network connecting it all together. (Diagrams p.18, 19)
2. The lights have to be capable of accepting commands that specify up to 32 different flash modes for up to 8 separate flashing components per sign. (p. 50, 5.5.4.2.2a)
3. An entire new 40kmh sign has to be supplied with the lights. They cannot simply be mounted on the existing signs. (p.21, 5.2.2(a))
4. The box that houses the electronics cannot be any old box. Quote: "All equipment and sign housings shall be constructed from Alloy What is more, quote: "For equipment housings and over roadway sign housings, the access door shall be hinged on the left hand side of the door. For advance warning sign housings, the access door shall be hinged on the right
hand side of the door. (p. 23, 5.2.6.3.1)
5. The LEDs that make up the lights are connected in series strings, typically 5 per string. If one LED blows all 5 go out much like Christmas lights. So of course to avoid the disaster that would result of a contiguous group of 5 LEDs (out of 96) were to go out, the lights must be constructed such that no 2 LEDs from any one string are side-by-side. (p.40, 5.4.3).
6. The lights controller has to be capable of detecting and reporting the loss of any single string of 5 LEDs (p.40, 5.4.4.1)
7. The LEDs cannot be any old yellow colour. Quote: "The chromaticity co-ordinates of the emitted light from the Alert Display shall fall within the relevant colour boundaries on a CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram as specified in AS/NZS 2144 for traffic signals, when measured on the light axis of the test specimen and at the horizontal and vertical half angle positions." (p.43, 5.4.11.1) They also must be made from from aluminium indium gallium phosphide (p.40, 5.4.2)
8. When the Alert Device Controller tells the lights to start flashing, they must do so within 1/25 of a second. 1/10 of a second is simply not good enough! (p.42, 5.4.8)
...and on and on for 126 pages.
At least it is pleasing to see that they have finally adopted my design for positioning of the flashing lights, namely mounted directly on the 40kmh sign each side of the words "School Zone" rather than on a separate panel above the sign as per their previous designs. See diagrams Page 19 and p.96 and see www.schoolzonelights.com.au
Peter Olsen
13/55 The Grand Pde
Brighton-le-Sands 2216
9012-5298
9599-1811
0414-538-404
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I will add the attachment link when I figure out how to get it off the email.
Reading the above I can only summise that someone(or design team), at the RTA is trying to justify their salaries.
Yes it's vitaly important that a door on a control box made out of "Alloy 5251 H32 aluminium sheet to AS/NZS 1734". (p.23, 5.2.6.1)" "shall be hinged on the left hand side of the door."
That's like installing the flashing light unit at Blakehurst, no doubt to the rulebook at 90 degrees to the kerb, so that the flashing lights wink uselessly toward a Chinese restaurant and not the traffic
A dreadful photo taken through my windscreen shows the lights on the school zone sign that aren't angled toward the cars sweeping around the bend because of rigid (or stupid)installation specifications.
It is a mystery why they need this stand alone solar powered unit there in the first place, why two separate units at one place?
Wouldn't it be sensible and cheaper to run a wire down from the overhead one to lights on the sign and take this solar powered set to Edgbaston st Beverly Hills where it can do some good?
No wonder there's no money for school maintenance and for all schools to get life saving flashing lights will take 100 years.
This entry was posted on 16 Jun 2008 at 20:41 by hstephens and is filed under AA.