Mixture of Profibus and Ethernet for Safe road tunnels
Austria is investing an enormous amount of money from road tolls in modernization of its highways. In the course of the so-called Welser Spange, Dürr-Austria has built two tunnels, which are equipped with state-of-the-art control technology from AutomationX and are monitored and controlled from the newly built tunnel control center in Wels. The system combines Profibus and Ethernet rings in a conception, which meets the highest safety requirements.
The Autobahnen- und Schnellstrassen-Finanzierungs-AG is responsible for the operation and expansion of the highway network with 1,500 employees and 53 locations. One of the most important construction projects is linking the Voralpenkreuz to the A8 at Wels and reducing driving time by 30 minutes at a total cost of 142 million Euro. In the course of the so-called Welser Spange, Dürr-Austria has built two tunnels to house 4.3 km of the total link-up of 11 km.
The whole system meets the highest safety requirements whereby redundancy mechanisms have become an absolute must especially since the tunnel accidents in recent years. At the field level, the system parts traffic, lighting, ventilation, safety technology etc. have been implemented largely with autarchic control units from AutomationX.
The data connections of the controls with their approx. 12,000 data points are divided between several redundant Profibus rings. The cross-linked networking of the tunnel systems with the operations center is effected with redundant Ethernet rings. The tunnel control units in the control center are also structured redundantly.
An essential advantage of this system structure with distributed intelligence and multiple redundancy is that even double faults can be tolerated! The system is ideally prepared for the planned cross-linked networking of the regional tunnels by the transparent and safe data networking of the individual components in the tunnel to the local traffic control center. The vertical integration also allows an efficient and fast maintenance of the system which has advantages for the economy in addition to the safety. The entire tunnel system is monitored centrally from the control room thanks to the Profibus and Ethernet technology.
Project parameter
- 2.3 km tunnel stretch Steinhaus
- 1.6 km tunnel stretch Noitzmühle
- 25,000 data points
- 12,000 physical connection points
- 160 video pictures
Solution
- 6 Profibus DP rings in the tunnels
- 2 Ethernet rings for connecting to the control center
- 86 OZD Profi 12M
- 10 RS2-FX/FX
