In the first eight days of June‚ however‚ the battered 2.5m bridge over Atlantic Road has not picked up any new scars‚ and the City of Cape Town hopes that is due to technology which detects the approach of high vehicles and warns them of the low bridge ahead.
The R300,000 3D laser system developed by a local company has been installed above the northbound carriageway of Main Road‚ about 150m from the intersection with Atlantic Road.
Cape Town's mayoral committee member for transport‚ Brett Herron‚ said the system used an infrared laser beam to read the height of the vehicles and their load.
"Should it detect that a vehicle in the turning lane is higher than 2.5m from the road surface‚ a warning system is triggered at the intersection with Atlantic Road.
A signboard with high-power LED lights will flash for about 30 seconds‚ indicating to the driver that their vehicle is too high to cross underneath the railway bridge‚" said Herron.
"Although it is too early to determine the success rate of the new warning system‚ it is noteworthy that no crashes have occurred since 1 June 2016 when the system started operating."
Two more laser detection systems are planned: one above the southbound carriageway of Main Road for traffic approaching Atlantic Road from Steenberg‚ and another above Atlantic Road for traffic approaching the railway bridge from the eastern side.
"These roll-outs will happen as soon as we have determined the success rate of the first system‚" said Herron.
- TMG Digital/Cape Town Bureau
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