Transportation

Toll Highway Authority Looks Toward Pelco
Making a Commitment to CCTV Surveillance

Article by David L. Sippel, Technical Assistant to Toll Services Department, Illinois State Toll Highway Authority

Since there is such a widespread area under the jurisdiction of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA,) the Toll Services Department saw the need for the development of a plaza and roadway CCTV surveillance system to monitor traffic and to provide for plaza security.

This is one of the largest CCTV installations for traffic management in the country, and eventually this system will incorporate the states bordering Illinois. ISTHA has 274 miles of toll road, with four interstate toll road sections. These roadways also interconnect to IDOT expressways to and from Chicago. The toll road spans from Indiana to Wisconsin to Iowa across northern Illinois - with 471 toll lanes in all.

The purpose of this system is to monitor the toll lanes, building docks, parking lots, and the roadway traffic within one mile in the approach and departure directions from the plaza. In addition, fixed cameras are located within the plaza buildings for monitoring vault rooms, tunnel areas and patron rest areas.

"To our knowledge, no one else is operating a system at this large of a scale with this much complexity of integration," said Kyle Parker of Keith Parker and Associates, Pelco Manufacturer Representative. "They are working with Orion Automation to establish a communication link between one System 9760, located at their main office, with all sixty-six CM8500s in the field."

At unattended plazas, CCTV cameras monitor the automatic coin machines for theft or vandalism and are recorded on 24-hour time lapse VCRs. CCTV cameras at some unattended plazas are currently connected, via a multi-mode fiber optic cable, to manned plazas. This provides the plaza supervisors with on-line monitoring of activity at the unattended plazas.

All of the fixed and Pan/Tilt/Zoom CCTV camera video is transmitted in real time throughout the system, and this concept will be maintained through all of the future planning stages. A multi-mode fiber network was installed at unattended plazas for short-hall video transmission of less than three miles.

The first P/T/Z cameras were housed in Pelco EH4600 environmental enclosures, and initially the Pelco CM8502 Matrix/Controller was used. But as the plazas required more camera inputs, the CM8503 became the standard used for all plazas. In addition, after attending a Pelco Spectra Dome demonstration given by Keith Parker and Associates, the Authority switched to the Spectra Dome P/T/Z cameras. The small profile, lightweight dome, and the ease and versatility of installation and expanded features of Spectra were the deciding factors. They are mounted on canopy columns, under canopies on cross-member struts, on a 2 1/2" conduit above a sign truss, and on 30-foot light poles.

Authority personnel not involved with this project have been very impressed by the Spectra Dome's capabilities and have commented that they look like special lighting fixtures. Now that is covert monitoring.

By the end of the year, there will be 207 Spectra Dome cameras and 66 CM8503 Matrix/Controllers installed and operating in the tollway CCTV system.

The CM8503 Matrix/Controller along with other system equipment are located in the computer room at manned plazas in a Video Matrix Control Cabinet. A keyboard, two 9-inch monitors, motion detector, multiplexer, and two VCRs are also used in the Video Matrix Control Cabinet system. One VCR is connected to the motion detector and the other is connected to the CM8503 output for selected camera recording.

Each manned plaza has an office monitor/control station, comprised of a CM8505D keyboard, four 14-inch PMC14E monitors, and a 32-inch monitor with quad splitter for unattended plaza monitoring. The plaza supervisor can view all cameras at the plaza, thus providing traffic incident and security monitoring at the plaza.

"We have been able to dispatch emergency vehicles to accidents immediately after they occur and keep an eye on the toll lanes for problems. Before we had these cameras, we couldn't see the far lanes," supervisors have said. "And roadway problems had to be reported by patrons."

All unattended plazas on the system have Spectra Domes for security monitoring at the manned plazas. "The video recordings from these unattended plaza 'watchdog' cameras have been valuable to the state police in apprehending and prosecuting suspects for theft and vandalism at these plazas," according to the Video Surveillance Department.

The Authority has now entered into its second installation phase of the CCTV plan. In this phase, all video cameras at the remaining unattended plazas will be interconnected to the nearest manned plaza via a new single mode fiber transport system spanning the entire 274 miles of toll road.

All unattended plaza CCTV matrix/control and violation enforcement system equipment will be relocated to the manned plazas. This will allow the plaza supervisors to monitor and control all CCTV cameras in their plaza system. Some unattended plaza "watchdog" cameras will be as far away as 12 miles from the manned plaza from which they are monitored and controlled. A portable matrix/controller system will be used by the state police for local violation and surveillance details. It is expected that this phase will be completed by the Spring of 2000.

The next phase is the design and installation of a Traffic and Incident Management System (TIMS) that will transmit roadway and plaza surveillance CCTV video to the Authority's Central Administration complex in Downers Grove, Illinois. This transmission will also be via the single mode fiber optic cable transport system.

It is being proposed that a Pelco System 9760 Series 976 x 256 Matrix/Controller and Orion computer system be used as the host matrix/controller system at the Authority's Central Administration building. The TIMS system will receive real time video from all remote sites. It will then be converted to digital video for transmission to management work stations via the Authority's computer network. Traffic management centers in the adjacent three states and broadcast traffic centers will also be able to share this video and data information from ISTHA's Traffic and Incident Management System.

Since these CCTV systems have been installed and operating, Roadway Maintenance, Plaza Security, State Police, and Toll Services are discovering more uses for these cameras. Discussions are also in the works for further expansion to cover additional roadway sections, additional security surveillance and personnel protection. It is truly an ongoing system that will serve the Tollway well.