In developed countries, most infrastructure is situated underground. This may be in the form of electricity, gas, water, sewerage, drainage and telecommunications. In the case of a fault or routine maintenance, this infrastructure needs to be accessed and this is achieved through the use of inspection chambers. These are very common and hundreds can be seen on the streets and pavements of any city or town. To prevent criminal damage to infrastructure and in order to prevent accidents, these chambers are covered with access covers. However most access covers are unsecure which leaves them vulnerable to criminal activity. Covers in strategic sites require daily monitoring which is performed through physical inspections which is a time intensive and costly activity but currently necessary.
Hugslock Systems have developed a solution that can secure all underground infrastructure. We have created the iNTelligent Access Cover Technology “iNTACT” system which is the world’s first remote lockable access cover. It is secure, tamperproof and provides information about its’ environment to a central system. Embedded within the cover are a range of sensors that can offer a range of monitoring capabilities such as gas, heat, water, infrared CCTV, motion, bio-hazard and seismic.
iNTACT removes the need for physical inspections, as the locks can be monitored remotely from a central server. This enables a fast response in case of a detected anomaly instead of a passive response once something has gone wrong. We have strong market interest from telecommunications provider SITEL in the Czech Republic and the UK Ministry of Defence.