There is a proven need for reliable, accurate road surface and environmental monitoring and motorist-alert systems on rural highways. These systems are frequently required along sections of isolated highways where conventional telephone services and power supplies are not readily available. Furthermore, when they are available, they are associated with both a high initial cost and significant ongoing annual costs. This paper describes a practical, low cost approach to the deployment of monitoring stations on rural highways that were recently implemented by Delcan for the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, with support from Transport Canada and ENTERPRISE. The deployed “Total Monitoring Station” (TMS) demonstrates the ability to cost-effectively interface to different combinations of field devices and sensors, to monitor road conditions and provide automatic warning to assist road operators in rural areas. A key component of the TMS is the application of a commercial digital wireless (1xRTT) communications network. Although monitoring sensors are a relatively common feature of ITS, the use of 1xRTT and the peer-to-peer network with automatic operation via the TMS’s, is a valuable new, but practical application. The major advantages of a 1xRTT network (versus typical dedicated lease lines) are a rapid deployment time and reduced leased costs. In order to support the need for TMS’s in rural areas, where power may not be readily available; the demonstration project was solar powered.
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