Traffic management as easy as ‘stop’ and ‘go’ at Auckland Airport

When Higgins Contractors were asked to repair sections of the existing runway at Auckland Airport they were faced with the issue of safely moving project vehicles to and from a work site on an active runway.

Solution: Portable Traffic Lights (PTL) from CSP.

“We first viewed CSP’s new Portable Traffic Light system in October last year at their launch,” says Neil Colbert, Project Manager for Higgins Contractors. “When the job was awarded to us we had the issue of managing the air traffic and as well as trying to get our vehicles to and from the area on the runway where the work is being carried out. CSP’s solar powered automated traffic lights looked like they would do the job, so we called Mario from CSP’s Hire division.”

“This installation is a New Zealand first for these systems which are an extension to our range of Variable Message Signs and operate from the same software programme. They are also COPPTM compliant,” says Mario Bennett, Hires Sales Engineer for CSP. “We worked closely with the Higgins guys to get two PTL systems set up on two of the taxiways to keep project traffic and aircraft, using the taxiways, separate and safe.”

Each location and system is manned by Airport Security who are in contact with the tower. “Although these systems are completely automated the Portable Traffic Lights can also be operated remotely up to 500 metres away by handheld remote, this situation required someone to manually switch the lights on instructions from the tower as the aircraft can arrive and depart at anytime,” explains Mario.

“We have used other portable traffic light systems in the past but they weren’t automated or solar powered which created major issues,” explains Neil. “It’s all worked really well. CSP’s service has been good as gold. Mario has been here to assist with any queries and issues that arose.”