The commercial vehicle inspection station near Radway, Alberta, traditionally sees heavy truck traffic morning, noon and night, thanks to its busy location at the five-way intersection of Highway 28, Highway 829 and Highway 63, the lone high-speed artery in and out of Fort McMurray’s oilsands.

To keep things moving smoothly, the Alberta Transportation inspection station controlled five hardwired flashing beacons, which instructed commercial traffic to either report to the scale house or bypass the operation, depending on availability and congestion.

However, harsh winter conditions had taken their toll on the report-light system.

It was time for an upgrade, because with frost and other factors, they had some issues with the (power) lines breaking and needing to be repaired.

—Dan McCormack, Alberta Transportation

Alberta Transportation chose a collaborative project between ENCOM Wireless and Carmanah—the R838 Solar ITS Flashing Beacon—to resolve the situation in Radway.

The integrated solution uses an ENCOM CommPAK I/O 8K contact closure nestled inside a Carmanah solar-powered flashing beacon, creating a completely independent, completely wireless remote safety solution which can be turned on and off with the touch of a button.

Speaking of buttons, ENCOM specifically designed a new product—the CommPAK I/O 8M8 master controller—for the Radway project. Inside the stationhouse, the CommPAK I/O 8M8 features eight buttons to control as many as eight remote units independently.

For this situation, (the ENCOM-Carmanah solution) was favourable. The alternative was to consider running (new) underground wiring… altogether, at that location, it probably would have taken about four kilometres’ worth.

—Dale Kutz, Alberta Transportation

ENCOM’s collaborative wireless solution provides unfailing peace of mind for Radway’s commercial vehicle enforcement officers, who can close down one or more entry points to prevent traffic from backing up onto the surrounding highways and creating a potentially deadly situation.

In our location, we see a lot of wide loads. We’re pretty well the gateway to Fort McMurray, for the tar sands, so we see a lot of large equipment. Depending on the weather, sometimes, or the size of the load, you may be in the position where you just have to shut off one lane of the highway to allow the other lane to continue on through. So we have that option.

—Dan McCormack, Alberta Transportation

What’s Next?

The R838 allows for portable activation from an optional secondary master controller, and boasts built-in flasher programmability through user-configurable settings. All of which may be useful at the Radway inspection station in the future.

That intersection is being looked at and (is likely) going to be upgraded. This way, we can move the signs wherever we want them.

—Dale Kutz, Radway District