- Joined
- Oct 13, 2013
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Recently an electricity substation caused an electrical blackout just on Friday evening peakhour. Traffic lights, light rail and the M5 East tunnel was among those affected
The M5 tunnel requires lighting to safely operate. Due to the blackout only emergency lighting remained on but not enough for safe continuous operation.
The blackout went on for some hours and apparently if the battery backup exhausted then a complicated startup whatever that is would have been required - presumably the computers in the operations room would have been turned off as well.
When the power came back on, the M5 tunnel could not commence operations until the battery was fully recharged - in case another blackout occurred. Took another 6 hrs
This is a critical piece of infrastructure relying on a battery. Wouldn't an onsite diesel/ gas generator have been a better backup solution in addition to the battery?. It would have kept the tunnel open - though downstream, vehicles may still been affected by non operating traffic light
The M5 tunnel requires lighting to safely operate. Due to the blackout only emergency lighting remained on but not enough for safe continuous operation.
The blackout went on for some hours and apparently if the battery backup exhausted then a complicated startup whatever that is would have been required - presumably the computers in the operations room would have been turned off as well.
When the power came back on, the M5 tunnel could not commence operations until the battery was fully recharged - in case another blackout occurred. Took another 6 hrs
This is a critical piece of infrastructure relying on a battery. Wouldn't an onsite diesel/ gas generator have been a better backup solution in addition to the battery?. It would have kept the tunnel open - though downstream, vehicles may still been affected by non operating traffic light
