The smart beacon is installed on a section of the A-8 Cantabrian Highway between Mondoñedo and Abadín, in Alto do Fiouco.
The new system, made up of 372 beacons located 50 meters from each other, allows the safety distance in fog to be reduced from 40 to 30 metres. This intelligent beaconing supervised from the Traffic Management Center of the DGT in A Coruña is carried out automatically, which makes it a faster and more efficient process.
With this system increases the operability of the section by 78% and the number of days that the section of the highway is closed due to fog is reduced to one in four, according to the General Directorate of Traffic
The system consists of a solid amber light that guides the driver and a red light activated when a vehicle passes. In this way, it is indicated that there is a vehicle that precedes it in a section of 50 meters until the next beacon. Its function, therefore, is that of a rear fog light for vehicles, but located several meters in advance. Thanks to this, drivers have more reaction time and can prepare before meeting the vehicle ahead.
"SYSTEM Team"
The system, which began operating at the end of January 2022, was presented on the 29th of the same month by the Government delegate in Galicia, José Manuel Miñones. It was also attended by the sub-delegate of the Government in Lugo, Maria Isabel Rodríguez; the deputy director of Mobility and Technology of the DGT, Jorge Ordás; the provincial head of Traffic of Lugo, Angel Álvarez and the director of the management center of the Northwest-Cantabrian, Ramiro Martínez.
In the words of Jorge Ordás, deputy director of Mobility and Technology of the DGT, “The automated diversion has helped us to improve the use time of the motorway when there is intense fog and we have to divert traffic, but now we want to go one step further and, using existing technology, we have designed a project, a pioneer in Europe , innovative and economical to solve a specific problem, fog, which allows us to reduce to the maximum the number of hours that the highway has to be closed in said section and which represents a substantial improvement in the operation of the highway and the significant improvement in road safety of the section in question”.
Video of the Project Manager Susana Vidal in which she explains the operation of the system first-hand: https://youtube.com/embed/wjl0Ti8sUzc
