Development and installation of ITS solutions in the Tallinn-Kose and Imavere-Võru sections of Tartu highway

TRAFFEST OÜ has been a long-term partner of the Transport Administration in planning and carrying out dynamic traffic management projects. A new section of the Tartu highway was completed a few years ago at Kose-Võõbu, where the Transport Administration put up variable-message traffic signs, but till this summer, the first 40 kilometres of the country’s most important highway, on the section from Tallinn to Kose, were still equipped with regular traffic signs with the reflective sheeting. In 2022, TRAFFEST OÜ supplemented the 2+2 section of the Tartu highway with smart road solutions up to Kose, where depending on the weather, road or traffic conditions, the employees of the Transport Administration’s traffic control centre can change the limit speed displayed on the traffic signs and provide real-time information to the drivers on the road. We have also put up information boards from Imavere up to Võru, which will keep making the 1+1 sections safer on the country’s most important highway.

With the help of cooperation partners, TRAFFEST OÜ has put up four large information boards above the road, as well as 33 speed limit signs and 10 signs combining warning signs and speed limits along the road. Furthermore, three additional traffic cameras and one traffic counting and surveillance system were set up. The infrastructure improvements were not limited to Harju County only. Eight medium-size and one small information board were put up on the other side of the 100th km post of Tartu highway – at Imavere, Põltsamaa, Kärevere, Ülenurme, Kambja, Vagula and Võrumõisa.

Dynamic traffic management and the provision of information to road users give the 2+2 road sections the flexibility needed to allow for speed limits appropriate to the weather and traffic conditions and allow for higher speed limits of up to 110 km/h in the winter with good weather conditions, which will help significantly reduce driving time. Variable-message traffic signs make sure road users are informed in emergency situations and in the event of any obstacles in traffic. Variable-message traffic signs are well visible to all road users and help the road owner communicate with the road users in the safest possible way by providing them with information on time and in the right place. According to the Transport Administration, smart traffic management solutions will reduce driving time by 0.8% on the entire route and by 5.6% on the 2+2 road sections and will improve traffic safety throughout the Tallinn-Tartu-Luhamaa-Riga transport corridor.

Road administration traffic management system software

In the framework of the joint Estonian-Latvian project SMART E67, TRAFFEST installed 8 information displays, 18 speed limit signs and 12 combined warning and speed limit signs on the Tallinn-Pärnu-Ikla highway with the aim of making traffic safer and smoother on the international, high density route, as well as achieving savings in driving time. The next step in the joint project for the Road Administration was the procurement of software for the traffic management centre, which would allow for the operational management of variable message signs according to weather conditions.
In 2018, the Road Administration announced a public procurement for the acquisition of traffic management software, which was won by TRAFFEST in cooperation with the Italian company Swarco Mizar. The contents of the work was the development of a management software for variable message signs (VMS), informing about the road and weather conditions, installed in the framework of the Smart E67 project, including the integration of signs, road weather stations, traffic sensors and road cameras with the system, as well as the implementation of traffic management principles. The work also included system maintenance and support for a period of 5 years.
The Road Administration traffic management system was operational by mid 2019 and, for the first time in Estonia, it became possible to automatically change speed limits depending on weather conditions.
The traffic management software is designed such that in the future it is possible to interface other sections of Estonian highways with it that are equipped with variable message signs.”

SMART E67 variable message signs (VMS)

SMART E67 is a joint Estonian-Latvian project during which sections with roadside smart technology (ITS, Intelligent Transport Systems) solutions for managing and monitoring traffic, as well as informing road users on different sections of the Via Baltica route (E67) were built. The aim of the project is to make traffic safer and smoother on the international high density route, as well as achieving savings in driving time.
At the beginning of 2017, the Road Administration announced a public procurement for acquiring a system of variable message signs for the Tallinn-Pärnu-Ikla highway. TRAFFEST, as the winner of the tender, designed and built a system based on the equipment of Swarco Futurit by the end of the same year. The adjustment work was completed in mid 2018. The result of the work was the installation of 8 information displays, 18 speed limit signs and 12 signs combining warnings and speed limits, metal structures holding signs were built and the electrical connections established.
The possibility of using signs with variable speed limits to allow for a higher speed than 90 km/h in the winter period in the case of good weather conditions has been created for the first time in Estonia, while at the same time, in the case of hazards, it is possible to operationally reduce the allowed speed limit. The information displays inform road users about traffic restrictions, road works and temporary detours. In winter, road users are also warned about unexpected slippery roads as well as displaying air and road temperature data of road weather stations.”