Suffolk County Council has begun to install 100 sensors on its smart street lighting infrastructure for a variety of purposes as part of the Smart Places Live Labs programme.
It is working with wireless smart city applications specialist Telensa on the deployment under a two-year project funded by the Department for Transport (DfT), and is planning to monitor traffic, road temperature, air quality, wind and waste.
The sensors will provide data to a team at the University of Suffolk who will evaluate its benefits and help the council to decide which types to introduce at a larger scale.
“We’re committed to delivering a better road network and we know that the right smart technologies will play a crucial role,” said Richard Webster, street lighting manager at Suffolk. “We’re delighted to be working with long term partner Telensa as we create a sustainable smart places strategy that can adapt to the county’s evolving urban and rural needs.”
The project is using the company’s Urban IQ solution, which enables authorities to choose their preferred sensors, use multiple networks to connect them, and visualise all the data in one place. It runs on the Microsoft Azure IoT Central platform.
Smart Places Live Labs is being run by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) to examine the potential and challenges in using digital technology across the local highway network. It is backed by £22.9 million from the DfT.
Image by John Fielding, CC BY 2.0
