Stewart Scott to spearhead Beijing traffic project

consulting engineering company stewart scott international (ssi) has been given a chance to participate in the development and implementation of a traffic-signal system for beijing, china. the company is seconding senior director and transportation section head dr tinus vermeulen as project manager for two years. the invaluable experience gained on this assignment in china will enhance ssi’s intelligent transport systems (its) ability and could be of great benefit to south africa for the 2010 soccer world cup.

the company is involved in the chinese project – known as the bei-jing traffic integration and model evaluation system (betimes) project – through the dhv group, a leading european consulting engineering firm and a significant shareholder in the company. dhv has extensive experience in the netherlands, one of the most densely-populated areas of the world, as well as in china, greece, mexico, portugal and south africa. it works closely with its canadian partner, delcan, in implementing its solutions.

its its approach, global network and broad scope of activities have gained international recognition and acclaim. the booming economy in china has placed increasing pressure on the country’s transport system, and traffic congestion is becoming a serious problem, not only hampering the smooth flow of traffic, but also progress and further economic development. unlike other chinese cities, beijing municipal authorities have not restricted ownership of private cars and, by 2010, it is estimated that the national fleet will reach 2,8-million. the city is to host the 2008 olym-pics. the betimes project includes a decision-support system for traffic planning, traffic-control design and optimisation and traffic management, covering the entire city of beijing. it also includes the initial imple-mentation of an integrated network traffic-control system for a limited area – a concept that will eventually be extended throughout the city. if successful, the concept could be used in other chinese cities. an important component of the project involves training of staff for the operation and maintenance of the system. vermeulen, who achieved his phd in transportation at the university of california, in berkeley, us, has over 30 years of experience in transportation planning, traffic and toll-revenue forecasting, public transport, modelling and logistics. he is a founder member of intelligent transport systems of south africa and has worked on many traffic and toll-revenue forecasting projects, including the n1, n2 and n4 toll concessions. vermeulen will take the opportunity while overseas to promote the its and the public-private partnership model that ssi has successfully offered and implemented for clients throughout the southern african development community region.