Cardina Shire has depended on a DikStik unit providing valuable flood monitoring of the area around the rail bridge near Beaconsfield Station.
This area is a flooding hot spot and it is not uncommon for vehicles to become stranded under the rail bridge when the roadway floods.
The existing Dipstik unit has been in operation for more than 6 years and has continued to provide the Cardinia team with timely information about flooding in the area. Enabling them to react promptly to close the road and assist stranded members of the public.
Although effective, the existing system did not provide enough alert information to local road users about the potential hazard.
The system has now been augmented with the addition of automated flashing road signs either side of the area that floods.
These signs communicate with the main DipStik water level monitoring unit and activate automatically when the water level reaches hazardous levels. They continue to flash until such time as council staff have inspected the area, made it safe again and reset the system.
The original DipStik monitoring unit has also been upgraded with the addition of a camera. This enables Council staff to get a near real time snapshot of the local conditions at any time without the need to physically visit the location. This is particularly useful for the management of flood events that occur outside of business hours.
The system has the option to be upgraded, at a future time, with automatic boom gates to physically restrict road access.
The system is solar/battery operated, with communications between devices and to emergency management staff via the national mobile phone network.