On Monday, March 30th, the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility will commence construction of a traffic light system that is artificially intelligent. The roundabout at Punta Prima-Rocío del Mar, situated at kilometre 52.8 of the N-332 road in the municipality of Torrevieja, on the border with Orihuela, will be the site of the installation.
The initiative is funded by European funds from the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan and has a budget of 409,369 euros (VAT included).
Between March 30th and the end of May, there will be partial road closures in order to ensure the safety of labourers and users, as a result of these works.
The project’s goal is to develop an intelligent traffic light monitoring and management system that employs machine learning and reinforcement learning techniques. This system will be capable of adjusting traffic regulations in accordance with the data obtained and the user experience.
In order to evaluate the operation of the roundabout and determine the most effective solution for all users, these methods are supplemented by neural networks, immense data analysis, traffic modelling, and conventional traffic engineering methods.
Video cameras
The works will involve the installation of traffic light poles at the roundabout’s entrances, the placement of detection cameras and traffic data collection devices at each entrance, and the implementation of a control system that is based on Artificial Intelligence and is capable of automatically regulating traffic light cycles based on the actual traffic intensity.
This intervention “aims to establish the groundwork for the integration of intelligent systems into the road management of the State Road Network, in addition to enhancing the flow and management of traffic at the roundabout.”
Congestion
The AI system will be required to work diligently at this roundabout and will undergo extensive “training” after its deployment is complete. The La Zenia roundabout, located slightly further south, and the Torrevieja bypass, located a few hundred metres further north, are both traffic bottlenecks that exacerbate during Easter and summer.
In 2024, the average daily traffic on this segment of the N-332, which has two lanes in each direction, was 45,000 vehicles, as indicated by the traffic counting station of the Ministry of Transport’s traffic map.
The N-332 is exclusively accessible to residents of Rocío del Mar, Señorío de Gomendio, and Punta Prima through this roundabout, which also serves as a junction for traffic from the national highway and the main thoroughfares of Avenida de Las Olas and Avenida de Escorpiones. Traffic congestion extends for hundreds of meters in the direction of Torrevieja, between the roundabout and Orihuela Costa, and is somewhat less severe in the direction of Orihuela Costa when approaching from Torrevieja.
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