DRUM that is hard to beat

While road works are often carried out during the night to reduce congestion, this decreases the time available for the work. The Dynamic Roadspace Utilization Manager (DRUM) is designed to assess the level of traffic and determine the period of time during which traffic lanes may be closed without resulting in congestion. Portable radar detectors mounted on solar powered trailers were hooked up with a GPRS modem to provide live traffic data which could be used to predict how much traffic to expect on the road at any time. Use of weather forecasting can increase the accuracy of the projection. By filtering the prediction and estimating the vehicle-per-hour lane capacity , DRUM software can provide a dynamically updated prediction of when one or more lanes could be closed without causing tailbacks. The decision to open or close a lane is still made by the site contractor, base don the recommendation of the system. The information is delivered via a web site. Starting and finishing times could be planned ahead using constantly updated predictions, enabling longer work on the UK M25 Dartford widening scheme than had been previously allowed, and reducing the length of the project by six months.