The existing weather station at Belmont is due a significant upgrade and in place of undertaking these necessary improvements the highways service has invested in two new innovative stations as a cost neutral solution.
The new stations are powered by Rennicks’ Off Grid Power Solution (wind and solar powered), helping the council work towards climate emergency targets for the borough. As they are not connected to usual mains power the new installations are also saving BwD communities money.
Assistant Executive Member Growth and Development, Councillor Zainab Rawat said: “Fantastic to see the new weather stations installed for BwD. These help ensure our road networks are ready when severe weather hits, and because they are solar and wind powered this helps us tackle the council’s climate emergency targets, as well as saving money.”
“The weather stations will improve the forecasting model thanks to the increased data provided. And two new CCTV cameras will provide still images every 10 minutes giving the council a view of the BwD network, to assist with decision making at the time of severe weather. The weather stations will also help ensure network support is accurate, for example when we may need to treat Blackburn differently to Darwen, and vice versa.“
Dwayne Lowe, Head of Highways and Network Operations at Blackburn with Darwen Council, added: “I am immensely proud to have been involved in the successful delivery of this innovative solution. Our old weather station was poorly located and required significant investment to maintain. The provision of these two new weather stations will ensure we receive a robust data led forecast and provide efficient gritting operations. Over the next year or so we aim to build on these two stations installing ‘infill’ sensors across the Borough to enhance forecasting accuracy for us and our neighbouring authorities.“
Ian Thomas, Business Development Manager at Rennicks, commented: “All of us at Rennicks have been delighted to work with such a forward thinking local authority as Blackburn and Darwen, on this interesting project that returns crucial information about the condition of the roads in real time. The OGPS technology enables weather stations and other equipment such as CCTV, to be placed in areas and locations where in the past, it would have proven extremely difficult and costly to get the required power through to run the equipment.”
For more information on our Off-Grid Power Solution, please contact us on 01928 579 966.
