SRL Urban64 Temporary Signals

[L.J.D]

I wondered the same here they used SRLs when this junction was been reconfigured when the new link road opened. The normal set of lights have been there pretty much all my life that I can remember so 27 years at least. It's had one previous refurb too that I can remember (Mellors to Hallogen Elites) yet this time the second refurb they decided to add a mast arm onto it for some reason. The lights seemed to cope well before without one for all the years previous. I have a suspicion that when it's not Wakefield Council paying they go all out on the signalling because there's a few locations in Wakefield which West Yorkshire Combined Authority have funded alterations and new road projects and they've added multiple mast arms on junctions that previously had none. So it may be a case of just the council going all out because they aren't footing the bill for them. Wakefield seems to be gaining quite a collection of mast arms lately.

[darkcape]

That area seems to have mast-arms and gantry signals almost as a matter of standard!

I've also seen they can use totem pole arrangements on them too which again would make using them a benefit.

You've answered my question that had arisen in response to Darkscape's post, which was going to be if anyone had seen the use of mast-arms or high-level duplicate signals on U64 systems.

We had a U64 site in Liverpool which was in place for probably around six months (I'm not sure why the work took so long, given there were not actual changes made to the layout, but that's another conversation) at a busy urban junction with 30mph & 40mph roads. The existing signals included four mast-arms, and the replacement signals now include four mast-arms and four high-level 'totem' signals.

The U64 had no high-level signals installed for the duration of its presence, which made me think about the justifications for the additional high-level signals (or indeed, the justification for the lack of them in the U64 system) given there were none present for such a prolonged length of time.

So far they've swapped one half of the squareabout onto U64s with the other half running on existing heads - high-level poles have been used to have a primary and secondary on the same pole with another secondary nearside of the junction whereas previously they were all far side. It's a bit confusing working out where to look.

The carriageways at the Fosse Park/Grove Farm triangle vary between 3-6 lanes wide hence heavy use of gantries and mast arms. All originally went in early 1990s with the number of gantries being reduced at Fosse Park in 2013 in favour of more arms when the island was widened.

[traffic-light-man]

I wondered the same here

Was there a potential increase in larger vehicles using lanes 1 and 3 with the new link road opening? I know that arms are often favoured as a method of overcoming 'canyoning' by high sided vehicles leaving centre lanes without a clear view of signal heads, which looks like it could perhaps have been the justification here.

Masts are still rare in this part of the world. The only gaggle of masts is at the latest incarnation of Switch Island, which combines (albeit low height, really) totems and masts into the same structures. I think these are probably an attempt at increasing the conspicuity of the junction, given its poor safety record.

So far they've swapped one half of the squareabout onto U64s with the other half running on existing heads - high-level poles have been used to have a primary and secondary on the same pole with another secondary nearside of the junction whereas previously they were all far side. It's a bit confusing working out where to look.

It'll be interesting to see the final layout. Does the U64 system have toucans for the pedestrian crossings as well? I don't think I've seen toucans on a U64 system, but given they seem to only use in-line signal head configurations rather than 'L' shaped ones, it'd be interesting to see if they'd do a toucan head in the conventional 'L' shape.

[Bryn666]

Even those mast arms look designed to withstand nuclear blast.

France has slender mast arm designs at virtually every major junction, what difference are they applying? Wind loading can't vary that much.

[Conekicker]

Even those mast arms look designed to withstand nuclear blast.

France has slender mast arm designs at virtually every major junction, what difference are they applying? Wind loading can't vary that much.

Puts on striped T-shirt and black beret, places Gauloises in corner of mouth and gives Gallic shrug, "Uh, eef eet blows over een zee wind, eet blows over een zee wind m'sieur..."

[Gareth]

We seem to have an almost unique resistance to mast arms in this country. There are many wide roads I’ve often thought could do with them. They’re probably seen as American and therefore a “no no”.

[traffic-light-man]

I was always a fan of the old London-style mast arms, from aesthetic point of view. They seem far less visually intrusive than some of the other examples seen around and about.

Of course, a lot of these new ones do some rotating trickery to remove the head from the live lanes for maintenance. Not sure how successful that is in the Switch Island example, mind you!

[Chris Bertram]

Span-wire. We need more span-wire.

[Bryn666]

Span-wire. We need more span-wire.

The A629 leaving Halifax now has them too. Must be a West Yorkshire thing now.

[traffic-light-man]

Span-wire. We need more span-wire.

The A629 leaving Halifax now has them too. Must be a West Yorkshire thing now.

They did have that Mellor on the Leeds loop to start off with, I suppose!

Interestingly, the other span wire sites in WY seem to have used the polycarbonate Visilogue Slimlite. I always assumed that it was because it weighs next to nothing, but I assume the Halifax example will use a more recent signal head.

[darkcape]

Span-wire. We need more span-wire.

The A629 leaving Halifax now has them too. Must be a West Yorkshire thing now.

Does west Yorks have a railway transferee in their office? They don't teach OLE principles at roads school

[Beardy5632]

They have those on Testos as well.

[traffic-light-man]

I had reason to travel along the A59 in North Liverpool a few days ago.

I noted that SRL Temporary units have been employed on the latest stage of the works. These are half way between the portable signals and the U64s, as far as I can tell. Still haven't spotted any new U64 sites of late, though.

I'm interested to know why SRL are still using the Elite for their portable kit if the Swarco 'European' head is suitable for the temporary kit. Perhaps a case of 'if it ain't broke'.

[traffic-light-man]

I had reason to use the Medlock St/Princess Rd junction of Mancunian Way in Manchester a few times recently. The junction is being completely re-engineered with Urban 64s deployed, but pre-existing Toucans remain in operation on two arms of the junction (but not controlling the roundabout itself).

It was quite interesting to see the U64s working in tandem with the permanent signals, which I don't think I've witnessed previously. The permanent signals on the approaches to the junction were cycling in conjunction with the nearby U64s.

[traffic-light-man]

We've had another set of Urban 64s appear in Liverpool City Centre, on the Strand/Chapel Street junction. This junction is being completely remodlled from a half-hamburger in to a standard crossroads, so the use of them here is understandable.

Unusually for the city, the other junctions that form part of the scheme of works have been re-sited in to NAL blocks in the traditional fashion.

I took a few photos on the night they were set up, but not much of interest was happening, so I won't bore you with pictures of yellow blocks on a low loader! I did recently take this photo of one of the assemblies close up, though.

[ratcliffe]

Hopefully soon ,we will get a chance to see Urban 64s in their new temporary signal guise, it looking like normal 2/3/4 way temps, but with full on UTC control in Leicester at the Almond Road/Old Cattle Market (Morrison’s) junction.

This site is due a refurb, which I’m co-ordinating, and we’re going to be a trial site for these temps.

[traffic-light-man]

Hopefully soon ,we will get a chance to see Urban 64s in their new temporary signal guise, it looking like normal 2/3/4 way temps, but with full on UTC control in Leicester at the Almond Road/Old Cattle Market (Morrison’s) junction.

This site is due a refurb, which I’m co-ordinating, and we’re going to be a trial site for these temps.

That'll be interesting to see. I've seen some SRL 'temporary' units running with the UTC connection here in Liverpool, though they didn't seem to hang around, and everything since has been portables with UTC connections.

I assume these 'Metro Master' units from the competitor are a similar idea. Not seen any of these in action, but they look much better (in my opinion), being a UK standard signal head and a base that looks more like a NAL block.

[ratcliffe]

I’m looking forward to trying them out. It’s only going to be a 10 day to two week max renewal of an existing site, but we’ve been offered a chance to try them, and as you guys know, Leicester has been in the forefront with controllable temps, with the Police HQ junction a few years ago being the first Urban 64s outside of London.
These new temps should be much easier to set up etc on site, more like traditional temps.