Palm Beach County’s Bridge Section is deploying advanced video surveillance and analytics to improve safety, monitoring, and operational efficiency across its movable bridges.
Palm Beach County maintains eight movable bridges along Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway and a historic swing bridge crossing the Rim Canal surrounding Lake Okeechobee. These critical transportation assets require constant monitoring to ensure the safe movement of vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and marine traffic.
“MIC cameras were selected because they are specifically engineered to deliver stable, high-quality images in punishing environments—continuous vibration, salt air, and heavy humidity. For this application, MIC cameras are in a class of their own.”
— Peter Van Kirk, North American Director, Government Security Solutions for Safeware
The Challenge
Palm Beach County’s Bridge Section needed a reliable monitoring solution capable of operating in challenging environmental conditions while providing comprehensive visibility around movable bridge structures and waterways.
The bridges face continuous vibration, salt air, heavy humidity, and the operational challenges associated with managing vehicle, pedestrian, cyclist, and marine traffic during bridge openings and closings.
The Solution
The Bridge Section engaged Safeware to assist with system design and procurement. Safeware assembled a specialized team comprising a national systems integrator and IQSIGHT to develop a robust solution capable of meeting monitoring, alerting, and environmental durability requirements tailored to bridge operations.
Three county bridges are now equipped with MIC, FLEXIDOME, and DINION cameras, delivering full coverage of the bridges and surrounding waterways.
Edge-based video analytics alert Bridgetenders when vehicles, cyclists, or pedestrians are detected within designated safety zones during bridge openings or closings.
The system also issues notifications when motion is detected beneath the bridge, around the movable spans, or on the waterway, ensuring enhanced situational awareness and operational safety.
“The system functions and alerts through the entire bridge process, from the closing of the roadway to the reopening of the roadway,”
— said Tom Coppini, Superintendent, Bridge Section for Palm Beach County.
IQSIGHT, formerly Bosch Video Systems, delivers intelligence-first video security solutions backed by more than 60 years of engineering expertise. Its cameras, software, and edge and cloud analytics help organizations reduce risk, improve operations, and make faster, more informed decisions. With more than 800 employees across 19 countries, IQSIGHT continues to invest in reliable, cyber-resilient security technology and innovation.
Internal Links:
https://security.world/category/video-surveillance/
https://security.world/category/video-analytics/
External Links:
https://www.iqsight.com/en/
https://www.safeware.com/
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How Many Movable Bridges Does Palm Beach County Maintain?
Palm Beach County maintains eight movable bridges along Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, as well as a historic swing bridge crossing the Rim Canal surrounding Lake Okeechobee.
2. Which Cameras Are Being Used?
The solution uses MIC, FLEXIDOME, and DINION cameras to provide coverage of the bridges and surrounding waterways.
3. How Does Video Analytics Improve Bridge Safety?
Edge-based video analytics alert Bridgetenders when vehicles, cyclists, or pedestrians enter designated safety zones during bridge openings or closings. The system also detects motion beneath bridges, around movable spans, and on the waterway.
4. How Does The System Support Privacy?
Privacy masking and privacy overlay functions can obscure adjacent residential properties and other non-target areas, helping support privacy requirements.
5. Will The System Be Expanded?
Yes. The design developed for the first completed bridges will serve as a blueprint for additional deployments, with the county intending to implement similar video surveillance systems across all movable bridges maintained by the Bridge Section.
Source: iqsight.com