Sri Lankan New Expressways

Sri Lanka is stepping in to a new era with its technological, economical and social development. So the necessity of modern expressway arrived with the time. Now that dream is about to come true in the near future with the implementation of the Southern Transportation development Project (STDP) that is the Southern Expressway implemented by the government accompanied with the Road Development Authority Sri Lanka. This expressway is constructed by a Japanese contractor “KUMAGAI” under the Japanese funds.

This Expressway is scheduled to be opened for the public by the end of the August 2011. Though it is designed to have 11 interchanges it will first come to the public with 8 interchanges from Kottawa to Pinnaduwa. This runs for about 125km from Kottawa.

Following is a Layout of the Dodangoda interchange

The interchanges are the places where the access  has been provided to the Expressway to the passengers form the existing national highway network. 

As it was said before, there are 8 interchanges which will be operating from August. those are at

• Kottawa
• Kahathuduwa
• Gelanigama
• Dodangoda
• Welipenna
• Kurundugaha hethekma
• Nayapamula
• Pinnaduwa.

Interchange at Kualuthara

This comes as a toll road that is, the road users have to pay for using the road. Every interchange is provided with toll booth for exit and entrance. The construction, Operation & maintenance of the Expressway is covered by that income. It has been estimated that nearly 10 to 15 million may cost for all operation & maintenance  of this expressway section. At the beginning, the Toll Collection is supposed to be carried out manually and it is Scheduled to be upgraded to a ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) system and Touch and go system in the near future.

This expressway has been designed for 6 lanes and only 3 lanes will be in operation at the first stage.

The designed speed at this expressway is 120km/ph. And the allowable speed limit is 100km/ph.

After the operation is started, there will be emergency services at 24 hrs service such as fire fighters, paramedics, Traffic Patrolling service on call.

Places under construction

Places under construction

Slope Protection

Expressways about to come

Colombo Katunayaka Expressway        -   25km

Katunayaka Anuradhapura

Toll Collection Systems

Toll collection is one of the most important process in an expressway because its operation & maintenance part is done with the collected money by tolling. So there should be more precise way of collecting toll from the road users. Most popular methods of toll collection is elaborated bellow.

Manual Toll Collection

Manual Toll collection

Here, there should always be a operator at the toll booth and he issue a ticket at the entrance to the driver, mentioning the driver details, Entrance place, date and other necessary informations. Then the road user has to pay the cost at the exit for his usage.

Touch and go system

I this system the drivers are provided with a prepaid or postpaid card in which the driver and vehicle details are been stored. And the driver who comes to the entrance has to touch the machine at the toll booth with the card and the machine read the card information and send it to the network. And the gate is then opened. Also at the exit, when the driver touch the machine with the card, the machine takes necessary action to deduct the required amount of money.

ETC Toll booth in Japan 

ETC system is fully automated and there are two devices at the toll gate and at the vehicle. When the vehicle reaches the gate, the vehicle is detected by the synchronization of the two devices. And the information is then sent to the network. At the exit the vehicle is detected and the required amount of money is deducted from the  owner's account.

The device kept inside the vehicle

There are many sophisticated methods used in identifying the vehicles.

• TRIM
• TIRTL

Expressway Maintenance

In an Expressway, the safety is the most critical factor to be considered. because, the vehicles are going in a speed above 100km per hour. One accident may cause 3 to 6 accidents at the same place due to the high speed. And these are consisting with more advanced technologies and designs due to its speed limit and in order to give the maximum output to the road users. So that the maintenance of the expressway is one of the crucial factor to be considered.

• 24 hrs Petrolling service
• On call fire fighting unit
• On call paramedic unit
• Brake - down services
• Sign boards
• Variable sign boards
• Standard road markings
• Real time information service for the road users
• Rest Areas
• Cleaning and maintenance services and a lot more

In day and night petrolling crews travel along the expressway sections to inspect for faults or any problem occurred at the expressway section. They are carrying every things which might be useful in any emergency. And these crews are specially trained for any circumstance which might arise unexpectedly. 

Petrolling Vehicle

In any emergency case is detected, the crew stop the vehicle and brrigate the area to avoid any accidents until the relevant team comes.

Digital Sign Truck

The team comes with this type of vehicle to inform the drivers that there is some problem in front. The distance of placing these vehicles is also crucial.

Variable sign boards

These variable sign boards are used to give real time information to the drivers. these are controlled by the traffic controlling office.

Rest Areas

These type of rest areas are provided for the drivers to rest on the way of the journey. in these rest areas, shopping complexes, filling stations, parkings, Toilets and bathrooms and real time information systems are provided for the drivers.

Real time information service

The real time informations are given to the drivers via internet, public medias, variable sign boards and at the rest areas as shown above.