The National Institute of Traffic and Land Transport (Intrant) is acquiring, through the modality of price comparisonthe traffic lights to be placed at 32 intersections of the Great Saint Dominic, that could suffer the same fate as others in conditions of storms or voltage variations, since the recommendations made by the Dominican College of Engineers and Architects are not included in the specifications (code).
According to the specifications, the Intrant is asking for teams to have overvoltage protection at the exits and entrances to the street, capacity of work with power 110/220v self-adjustable.
“The new regulators must comply with at least one of the interconnection protocols to be compatible, thus ensuring the interconnection between the traffic control center and these devices.”
The protocols are: NTCIP 1201 and 1202 (American); Unite 135401-4 (European); UM/008-UTC MIB UTMC (European UK). It is also recommended that they have a network card.
These conditions are part of the specifications that contain the price comparison, INTRANT-CCC-CP-2022-0007, under the title “Procurement of Works for the Intervention Services of 32 Intersections with high Accident Rates in Greater Santo Domingo”last September.
However, the conditions do not include the specifications on the ground connections, which are what cause the equipment to resist discharges and would prevent interruptions when electrical storms occur, since the equipment does not resist voltage variations.
On this subject, in August last year the Intrant requested the code a report following a series of interruptions of traffic lights that the country suffered after a storm and among the recommendations made by the experts appointed for this task was that the connections should be provided with approved accountants by the electricity supply company.
“As a primary safety measure, the quality of the ground system itself must be measured, otherwise proceed to its repair or, failing that, its installation, this being a condition of a “Sine Qua Non” character, all accessible metallic elements will be grounded.
“The maximum authorized ground resistance must be 30 Ohms maximum. The insulation materials and their installation must comply with the standards and conditions on low voltage, prescriptions in the grounding standards and other stable official competent bodies and electricity supply companies”, says the report prepared by the code at the request of Intrant.
In October of last year, as a result of a series of interruptions in the traffic lights of the capital, Alexandra Cedeño, then director of Sustainable Mobility of the Intrantsaid that the technical team of that entity made the evaluations based on suggestions received from the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (code) to determine the adjustments that needed to be made.
“We have been working to carry out tests, so that when the equipment is purchased, it is what can really be sustainable over time in a system of traffic lights which is in a tropical country,” said the official.
