Bionik AG Boom Gates in Action at Daintree River Crossing

David Attenborough called the Daintree the most extraordinary place on earth.

The Daintree River ferry crossing is the gateway to this ancient rainforest, featuring incredible wildlife and pristine landscapes that encompass two World Heritage Sites.

Tourists, Crocs and Automobiles……….

The ferry provides the only sealed road access to this area for both locals and visitors. Due to increasing visitor numbers, this point of access to the area has become a bottleneck in the peak tourist season. During this time there is often a long queue of cars waiting to cross the river.

A Unique Location Presents Unique Challenges

After the major flooding earlier this year Douglas Shire Council crews have been working to improve the facilities and amenities heading into tourism season. Much of the focus has been to reduce congestion at the ferry crossing.

3 important objectives for the Council were to:

• improve the efficiency of the ferry services, reducing queuing and wait times
• improve the tourist experience while keeping people safe from crocodiles and traffic incidents during loading and unloading vehicles
• minimise disaster recovery time after annual floods.

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Rotech’s Boom Gate Solution

The Douglas Shire Council have recently installed Rotech’s Bionik AG Automatic Boom Gates.

Designed for high-volume traffic control situations, these boom gates are ideal for locations without mains power and offers many advanced features providing smooth operation, instant reversing, superior safety sensing, tough 100% duty cycle and low power consumption.

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1. Facilitate more efficient traffic flow

Faster loading and unloading of vehicles and pedestrians is now safely managed by the ferry master without leaving his cabin.

• Access to the ferry is controlled using four Bionik AG Automatic Boom Gates. Two gates are each positioned either side of the river.
• The dual boom gates spanning the wide ferry boarding entrance remain in the closed position preventing vehicles and people entering the landing area.
• After lowering the vehicle ramp the ferry master then opens the boom gates via a long-range radio transmitter. This provides faster and greater control over the movement of vehicles on and off the ferry.
• Battery back-up allows the boom gate to continue to function for up to 300 operations ensuring vehicles can exit in the event of power failure.
• Mechanically tough and durable construction prevents damage from vandalism. Machined steel gears, high-quality bearings, strong gearbox add a higher level of security and safety – the self-locking mechanism means the pole cannot be forced open.

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2. Creating a safer environment for pedestrians

With safety high on the Council’s agenda the Bionik AG Automatic Boom has all bases covered:

• Highly visible Red LED flashing warning lights on top of the cabinet and along the length of the boom pole indicate the gates are about to close. 30 seconds after the warning lights are activated the boom gates come down.
• The LED lights also make the boom gate highly visible at night clearly indicating where to stop, even on the darkest nights.
• Gates are fitted with a fence below each boom pole as a safety precaution to restrict pedestrians from ducking underneath and walking down to the river’s edge or entering the landing and vehicle loading area.
• A safety loop detector prevents the vehicle access gates from closing if there is any obstruction across the roadway.
• Superior in-built safety sensing features and motor design enables instant reversing of the boom pole if any safety devices are activated or if the pole is obstructed.

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3. Providing flexibility in dealing with environmental conditions

The whole boom gate system is relocatable during flood season.

• All the automatic boom gate equipment is mounted on specially designed portable frames, bolted together on-site, allowing the gates to be relocated when the river is in flood.
• Relocatable solar panels power the boom gates. Able to provide 200 plus operations per day and 5 days standby with no sun, the solar panels bolted to a removable 4-metre post.
• The boom gate’s waterproof rugged construction features a 3mm thick cabinet reinforced with 6mm steel bracing making it ideal for this harsh environment.

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Rotech are leaders in automated access control. Our boom gates are tough, reliable, cost-effective and easily configured for different locations. For more information about this or other safety and security combinations for your site call Alan Roberts at ROTECH on 07 3250 1123 or email info@rotech.com.au