For almost 25 years there has been an ongoing campaign by local user groups working with Victorian State Government and local government to devise a plan to connect the Melbourne based Main Yarra trail and the Darebin Trail.
This section of trail, named the Darebin Yarra link, consists of 2km of pathway, traversing 5 river crossings and passing through areas of high flood risk.
Previously installed river crossings have proven to be inadequate and dangerous, with at least one being wash away along with other infrastructure in major floods in the area.
Implementation of the new pathway development proved to be challenging as it required acquisition of land from private owners, construction of 5 substantial bridges and erection of safety/security fences to protect private and public interests.
The development of the pathway resulted in a corridor along two flood prone rivers that could potentially result in users being stranded if the area was to flood.
Tuftec Solutions was contracted by VicRoads to develop and deliver an automated flood response system to help keep users safe during flooding.
The DipStik based solution developed by Tuftec consists of 9 individual DipStik units that measure local flood conditions, share critical situational information and then autonomously make access and egress decisions during flooding.
The system measures critical water levels in both the Darebin and Yarra Rivers. Based on these measurements and comparison with pre-configured trigger levels, access control boom gates and emergency exit gates are activated at various locations along the pathway.
The installation challenges were ideally suited to the DipStik’s solar/battery power and mobile phone communications architecture. This resulted in minimal local cabling requirements and a significant reduction in cost.
The autonomously activated boom gates are lowered to restrict access and to alert users to the fact that the pathway could be flooded and potentially dangerous. Simultaneously, emergency exit paths are opened to private property to enable any trapped individuals to quickly and safely exit the area.
During a detected flood event the system additionally flashes local warning beacons to alert users of the hazard in low light/night time conditions.
The DipStik Flood Warning System collectively sends direct SMS alert messages to locally appointed Flood Event managers as well as posting flood status messages, via a TCP/IP connection, to VicRoads traffic management system (STREAMS).
The system consists of 9 x DipStik Flood Warning Sytem (monitoring & control) nodes, 4 x boom gate mechanisms, 2 x customised automatic gate release mechanisms, a specialised traffic management system interface module and customised firmware and software components, including additional equipment installed upstream in the Darebin Parklands.
The developed solution can be easily expanded or deployed into other autonomous flood response systems having up to 16 individual Flood Warning System nodes.
The trail was opened to the public on the 25th of March 2018.
https://www.darebinyarralink.org/