Case Study: Using a Ritherdon NH RB800 Cabinet at Environmental Sensor Station Area 10, by the A56 in Accrington
Project
Refurbishment of Weather Station site (ESS site) at A56 Accrington.
Customer
- National Highways
- Vaisala
Ritherdon Product Used
- NH RB800 Cabinet
- RB800 Cabinet
- NH609N Cabinet
With winter fast approaching, National Highways have started to rollout the upgrade for their weather station facilities (Environmental Sensor Stations ) all throughout the country.
What was the issue?
National Highways were concerned about the infrastructure of its weather stations being outdated, with many being in operation for up to 25 years. They have decided to take steps to replace the weather station kit and bring it up to modern standards to ensure accurate winter weather forecasting.
Moreover, with an increase in severe weather, it is becoming increasingly important to provide accurate weather information.
Considering these stations are operating outdoors constantly, being exposed to harsh weather and the proximity to motorways increase the possibility of deterioration of electrical equipment.
What was the solution?
To protect the valuable weather monitoring and telecommunications equipment needed to relay this information from the elements electrical enclosures are used. For this particular task, National Highways opted to use Ritherdon RB Cabinets (for use on A Roads) and specially designed NH RB Cabinets (for use on motorways) to hold both the weather monitoring equipment and the telecoms required.
To accomplish this, National Highways have invested £15.4 million to update their weather station infrastructure. The project’s target is to update over 125 stations by 2025 with plans to update 100 more between 2025 and 2030.
Darren Clark, Severe Weather Resilience Manager at National Highways said: “Our investment in upgrading our weather stations is just the latest way we are developing our weather forecasting capability”.
Protecting Equipment with NH RB800 Cabinets
National Highways have been working with manufacturer Vaisala who are leaders in meteorology equipment to refurbish the weather stations. Ritherdon have been long-term suppliers of Vaisala and have assisted them with cabinets for other weather station projects over the years. We also work closely with National Highways, creating NH approved enclosures and cabinets, so we are very familiar with their designs and requirements.
To ensure durability and reliability, the electrical equipment needs to be protected from the inclemencies of the outdoors and the harsh roadside environment.
The weather stations will be fitted with Ritherdon NH RB800 Cabinets (on the motorways), RB800 Cabinets (for A Roads), and the new type 609N Cabinets.
The NH RB800 Cabinets are IP56 rated and provide stronger protection against water and dust than our standard RBs making them ideal for motorways. NH RB Cabinets are also IK10 rated and can withstand impacts of up to 20J, preventing high impact damage.
Our standard RB800 and RB cabinet range was created primarily to cater towards the highways industries. The cabinet’s design makes them ideal for protecting electrical and/or electronic equipment in inhospitable external environments, making them perfect for winter conditions.
The NH609N is one of the National Highways approved cabinets that we manufacture. Tested to NH standards, the 609N is also designed to prevent electrical equipment from being damaged by road conditions, including water, dirt, and vibrations.
The weather station will also consist of atmospheric sensors and road sensors cabled from the weather station to the road. They will measure snow and ice, visibility in fog, high winds, flooding, air temperature, humidity, and precipitation for the hazard of aquaplaning.
These sensors will help co-ordinate National Highways winter season efforts to prevent adverse winter conditions from affecting public travel, by making sure the new stations pick up and report poor conditions quickly so they can respond as fast as possible.
These new stations are also becoming more accurate, utilising route-based data instead of domain-based data to gain information on specific roads conditions rather than reading general weather conditions. The new stations have backup batteries and twin cameras to monitor road conditions.
The stations will also be run on NRTS (National Roadside Telecommunications Service) rather than landline or modem lines.
Conclusion -
What the customer says:
As of writing, the first weather station has been constructed and gone live in Accrington by the A56.
Due to our co-operation with National Highways, Ritherdon has been able to go one step further and expedite the refurbishment project by providing our RB800 and NH609 approved cabinets ahead of time, preventing a delay in production.
Paul Cardus, the National Highways Project Manager of Area 10, where the cabinet was installed, said.
“I just wanted to thank you and everyone at Ritherdon for keeping our ESS programme on track, without your help expediating the 609N and RB800 cabinet orders we would have needed to delay all our construction works.”
We are very happy to count Vaisala and National Highways as customers and hope to assist them further in the future.
