Written by Matthew Meek & Login Whelan
If you’ve ever driven on any major freeway, you’ve probably seen those giant signs every few miles that warn you of traffic conditions ahead, or inform you with important safety messages. Upon entering the Salt Lake City International Airport, you’ll see an assortment of these overhead roadway signs that ServiceTec is responsible for maintaining and servicing.
Maintaining these signs requires specific tools, resources, and a detailed plan submitted before any work begins. Since they are elevated roughly 25 feet up, a boom lift is necessary for accessing the panels. In order to operate the lifts, our team must be trained and wearing approved protective gear. Any work done above a main road utilizing a lift also requires state approval to close the affected traffic lanes.
The signs are actually a series of panels with diodes lined up in a grid pattern. The panels are modular, so we can remove and replace them without having to disassemble the whole unit.
Behind the panels is a control unit that acts as the brain for the display. It looks like a breaker box you’d see outside of some houses.
The controllers are connected to our network for content updates and remote management.
Network monitoring is essential for maintaining overhead roadway signs and ensuring their optimal operation. Our team uses a Network Monitoring Service (NMS) to continuously check the connectivity and health of each sign, and any detected unresponsiveness triggers a series of alerts sent out to our team. The most common issue we see is the controller unit disconnecting from the network.
Restarting the controller remotely will usually remedy this issue, but sometimes it does need to be physically reset. Occasionally, the control unit goes bad, in which case we work with the vendor and have them send out a replacement unit. If any panels have burned-out “pixels” or diodes, we replace the panel.
Any configuration changes and health checks on the signage are done by our team remotely via its web interface.
Maintaining these overhead roadway signs isn’t always easy since most of the issues occur during harsh weather conditions. Nevertheless, we always strive to ensure that our passengers can travel with ease, knowing they can count on these signs to properly direct them around the airport. So next time you’re visiting and you see our signs, just know that we’re looking out for you on your journey!
