Brisbane, Australia uses RFID technology to improve the safety of road construction workers
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A Queensland company in Australia is using RFID technology to improve the safety of road workers in the nation’s largest road project.
The north-south corridor will connect the city of Brisbane, which is separated by the Brisbane River. Expected to be completed in early 2010, the 6.8-kilometer toll lane will cost $2 billion and will be Australia’s longest road lane.
RiverCity Motorway, which oversaw and budgeted for the project, entrusted Leighton Contractors and Baulderstone Hornibrook Bilfinger Berger Joint Venture (LBB JV) with the design and construction of 4.8 kilometers north and south of the corridor. The two companies approached NLT Australia, a provider of underground lighting and digital communications solutions for the mining industry, to help them develop and implement a system to locate the 1700 employees in the tunnel.
RFID system tracks location of employees underground in Brisbane
Under the contract, NLT will install an open-standard backbone Ethernet digital network that supports two-way information transfer, environmental monitoring and real-time location systems. The company uses an RFID system to send employees’ location information to a network node, which transmits the numbers to special software.
The RFID system uses Wavetrend dual active/passive tags. Active tags transmit at 433 MHz and have a read range of up to 8 meters to provide location, time and employee information. The operating frequency of the passive inlay of the tag is 13.56 MHz.
“This project is a high-profile project, so construction companies must avoid any incidents that may occur,” said Matt Macer, NLT’s professional services manager. “The work environment is very dangerous, and the risk of underground digging combined with the movement of heavy machinery and a large number of vehicles adds to the complexity of the work environment. The main advantage of the RFID system is that it helps the company to know the specific employees and their locations in the corridor at any time in real time. “
NLT distributed personnel tags to all 1,700 employees and visitors, and installed Wavetrend 433 MHz RFID readers.
“We’ve installed RFID readers at entry and exit and above-ground gathering points (emergency staff gathering points),” Macer said. “In addition to locating each worker’s location, the software can track workers by skill and qualification. So if a company needs an electrician or first responder, the software searches the database to find the right person closest to the target area. This way, the company can more efficiently Arrange staff.”
David Sheldon, chief engineer of electrical and mechanical engineering at TBM, said the RFID system ensures the safety of employees during the construction of the passage. “The tunnel environment is more dangerous, and if there is an accident in the tunnel, we must be able to locate the employees in the tunnel and rescue them as soon as possible,” he said. “RFID technology is a modern solution and it has been successful in employee location applications.”
Sheldon said the channel is currently about 700 meters long, with a reader every 250 meters on the main channel, and readers will also be installed at the main work points on the ground. When the tunnel construction is complete, the company expects to have 60 readers installed.
LBB installs RFID tags on excavators, loaders and other road construction equipment
In addition to installing readers in emergency rescue areas and other critical areas on the ground, LBB is also installing RFID tags on excavators, loaders and other road construction equipment to precisely track asset locations.
In addition, the passive 13.56 RFID inlay of the tag is used as an access card to control access to the workplace.
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