Builds and maintaining the country’s intercity roads
Kilometers of roads
Interchanges
Intersections
Bridges & tunnels
Netivei Israel, Israel national roads company, builds and maintaining the country’s intercity roads. Its projects span over 8,500 kilometers of roads, 105 interchanges, 2,200 intersections, and 1,300 bridges and tunnels. These projects include development of green areas in ramps as well as the turf along the sides of the road. In addition, the company is also responsible for the restoration of trees and plants that were harmed/displaced during construction.
One of the main projects, Highway 6, also features dams that were designed to protect water resources in events like substance spillage on the road.
This type of deployment requires a central irrigation monitoring and control solutions that supports a large number of controllers, throughout a vast geographical area, covering multiple climate regions. The solution must support a high number of users, comprising internal staff as well as external contractors and advanced GIS capabilities to help them to quickly find their way across the deployment.
The vast and often remote areas create communication challenges that cannot be addressed through radio-based communication solutions.
The irrigation systems, especially in remote areas, are exposed to theft and vandalism.
To avoid road spillage there is a need for a system that can identify and mitigate water-loss related faults.
Remote areas sometimes don’t have connection to the electrical power grid.
The vast geographical scale requires a system that can reduce the need for maintenance and optimize the staff’s work.
As part of its landscape renovation and gardening efforts, the National Roads Company of Israel began working with Agam in 2015 as the central irrigation monitoring and control solutions to be deployed throughout the country. The solution includes Tamar real-time cellular-based irrigation controllers, which send and receive data in real-time over the cellular networks and RECO, the central cloud-based monitoring and control system.
Intercity roads require comprehensive coverage so drivers can place emergency calls. Agam’s cellular-based real-time irrigation monitoring and control solution leverages cellular communication and does not require additional communication infrastructure. Each Tamar controller is a stand-alone controller that uses cellular communications to directly communicate with the cloud. If there are communication issues, Tamar can store the data until communication is restored.
Tamar controllers support AC as well as DC-based power sources. In the DC configuration, a small solar panel can be placed near the cabinet and its power output is stored in a battery, providing round-the-clock power to the controller.
Agam’s RECO system offers real-time monitoring and control features across the entire deployment. Its comprehensive user management feature allows the entire staff, including contractors, to monitor and control the areas under their responsibility. The system also features GIS based mapping, allowing teams to pinpoint the fault on a map and navigate to it using their mobile devices.
Agam’s water leakage prevention and mitigation modules were deployed in strategic points throughout the deployment, usually in the main sources of water. The module opens the main valve only when there is demand for irrigation and it identifies leakages in the irrigation network by calculating the flow from the sources versus the flows of the individual valve heads. By calculating the difference between the source and the overall flow across all the valve heads, it can identify irregularities that indicate a leakage. The solution includes automated mitigation measures, such as the automatic closing of the valves and alerting the relevant staff members that oversee the specific area. This prevents damage caused by water leakages, such as road spills, damage to the gardens and ramps, etc.
Agam’s solution offers outstanding security features for remote/unattended deployments.
Hugger on cabinet
to protect from theft and vandalism, the cabinet in which the controller resides features an external hugger lock that is tamper-proof, in addition to the regular cabinet lock.
Controller concealment
since Tamar is also IP-65 compliant it is possible to conceal it inside the irrigation cabinet.
Unusable SIM cards
the controller uses special SIM cards that even if stolen cannot be used for any other purpose.
Agam’s Communication Gateway module enables control of a variety of electrical and electro-mechanical systems through the web-based RECO system. As part of the project, such modules were deployed to control the following systems:
Dams
controlling the opening/closing of dams throughout the 6-highway to prevent leakage of substances into the underground water sources.
Electrical generators
controlling the on/off of electrical generators to power electrical systems in case of electrical outages.
Pumps
controlling water pumps to increase and regulate water pressure.
Prismatic Signage
controlling prismatic signage throughout the roads.
Lighting
the Tamar controller was placed in the lighting cabinet and controls the lighting, providing scheduling and remote operation capabilities. In case of an electric fault, the controller automatically turns on the generator until electricity is restored.
