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SICE delivered the mission-critical control systems for WestConnex M8 Motorway and Tunnel. This is the second major step towards Australia’s most advanced consolidated control centre for the greater WestConnex road network. SICE’s flagship product (SIDERA) is the centrepiece Operations Management and Control System (OMCS) at the new M8 Motorway Control Centre located at St Peters. During the next stage of WestConnex (M4-M5 Link), this new control centre will manage all WestConnex operations across 16km of roads 19km of tunnels.
On the 4th of July, WestConnex M8 opened to traffic and is expected to deliver shorter, safer journeys for over 100,000 motorists each day. The M8 will provide twin underground motorway tunnels, nine kilometres long, from Kingsgrove to a new St Peters Interchange at the site of the old Alexandria landfill facility. The St Peters Interchange will also provide motorists with connections to Alexandria, Mascot and the future Sydney Gateway and M4-M5 Link.
For the M8, SICE was appointed by the construction Joint Venture to provide its comprehensive Operations Management and Control System (OMCS) in-house solution, SIDERA, along with several other Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) such as the communication data networks, the master programmable logic control (PLC) systems, the CCTV management system, a video wall, various phone management systems and the over height vehicle detection system.
The M8 Motorway Control Centre sets a new standard in interoperability for Australian road operations. It must interoperate with all other WestConnex stages and managed by the future Integrated OMCS that will offer the unified operation of the entire WestConnex network, but also interoperate with greater Sydney road network. Today, SICE delivered two major milestones for interoperability:
These new features and the greater interoperability achieved with them will allow for safer and faster travels in Sydney.
SICE’s team of more than 45 engineers played a key role during the commissioning of the M8 project, working collaboratively with the construction joint venture to overcome complexity and deliver on their commitments for schedule and safety. The test program included more than 12,000 roadside devices tested requiring more than 1,200 integration test cases. These achievements are remarkable within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The opening of M8 marks another key milestone for SICE in Australia and for our long-term partnership with WestConnex and TfNSW. Especially satisfying is to see how our team managed to overcome the COVID-19 situation and its challenges while commissioning a world-class OMCS system with the time constraints”, says Manuel Gonzalez Arrojo, MD of SICE Australia.
In Australia and New Zealand, SICE has successfully delivered its SIDERA OMCS in five projects – the M5 West in Sydney, the St Helena Tunnel between Tintenbar to Ewingsdale on the Pacific Highway, the WestConnex M4 East in Sydney, the WestConnex M8 in Sydney and the Waterview Tunnel in Auckland New Zealand. SICE have a further three projects under construction – the WestConnex M4-M5 Link in Sydney, the WestConnex Rozelle Interchange in Sydney and the West Gate Tunnel Project in Melbourne.
Images on this page appear courtesy of WestConnex.
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