Future Victoria: New AI cameras will keep motorists moving with real time incident control

Hundreds of hi-tech Automatic Incident Detection cameras are set to be installed allowing traffic controllers in Transurban’s new state-of-the-art facility to control incidents in real time.

Hundreds of new cameras using artificial intelligence to alert response teams to breakdowns or crashes will keep traffic flowing when the West Gate Tunnel opens.

The Herald Sun can reveal that an extra 400 hi-tech cameras, which use Automatic Incident Detection, will be switched on later this year throughout the new tunnel and across upgraded sections of the West Gate Freeway.

Traffic controllers would be sent the AI alerts via a new state-of-the-art Transurban facility in Yarraville that will replace the tolling giant’s Southbank centre, which has operated since CityLink opened at the turn of the century.

Traffic controllers will be sent AI alerts allowing them to respond to incidents immediately. Picture: Jason Edwards

The traffic controllers would be able to zoom in on issues identified via huge 12m-wide screens, before dispatching incident control teams to arrive to the scene within minutes.

The upgrade will boost the number of cameras used to keep motorists moving across Transurban’s network and parts of the freeway system to almost 900, with the vast majority using the AI systems.

Traffic control room officer Jordan Vitale said the existing centre could go from “zero to 100” at any time of day, but that peak periods stretched from 6am until 10am and from 2pm until 7pm in the afternoon.

Traffic control room officer Jordan Vitale. Picture: Jason Edwards

She said breakdowns and accidents were not the only thing crews had responded to recently.

“Recently we did have a baby born on the side of the road which was really exciting; everything was all A-okay, they just unfortunately couldn’t make it to the hospital,” she said.

“In a similar location we did save some ducklings as well, and then also we recently relocated some kittens off the road that just lost their way.”

Transurban teams respond to about 1100 incident a month across Melbourne’s inner freeway network, which includes the West Gate Freeway and Bridge, CityLink, and parts of the Tullamarine, Calder, and Monash freeways.

Originally published as Future Victoria: New AI cameras will keep motorists moving with real time incident control