Weather Stations in Bulgaria – Selection of Contractor for the Construction of an Automated Data Collection and Analysis System for Weather Conditions and Road Surface Monitoring

This public procurement contract involves the construction of an Automated Data Collection and Analysis System for Weather Conditions and Road Surface Monitoring (the System) through the delivery, installation, and commissioning of 8 weather stations along the road section "Sofia – Haskovo – Kapitan Andreevo". The stations will measure wind speed and direction, temperature above and below the road surface, precipitation intensity, and water level on the road, thereby informing about hazardous situations such as freezing, icing, fog, strong winds, etc. The network of weather stations will enable accurate forecasting of road conditions and will alert the Road Infrastructure Agency (API) of changes in weather. The System will utilize the established high-speed 5G communication as part of the project, known as 23-EU-DIG-5GTRACKS. The 5GTRACKS project has been approved for funding under the Connecting Europe Facility 2 program - CEF-DlG-2023-5GCORRlDORS-WORKS, and the Grant Agreement with the European Commission was signed on November 20, 2024. The project involves deploying a high-speed 5G network along part of the Orient/East Mediterranean transport corridor on both sides of the Bulgaria-Greece border in the sections: Plovdiv - Haskovo – Border Checkpoint Kapitan Andreevo – Kipi – Komotini – Kavala - Thessaloniki. Project partners include mobile operators Vivacom Bulgaria EAD, Nova, Greece, United Fiber, Greece, and API. The role of API, as a project partner and beneficiary, is related to the construction and commissioning of the Automated Data Collection System for Weather Conditions and Road Surface Monitoring (the System) along the road section "Sofia – Haskovo – Kapitan Andreevo" through the delivery and installation of 8 weather stations. The System is designed to monitor and analyze real-time weather and road surface data, providing information on changes in weather conditions, particularly adverse weather and climate conditions, ensuring safe and functional roads. By integrating modern sensor technologies and communication networks, the System automatically collects and transmits data from the weather stations on temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, and precipitation. Additionally, the System will monitor the condition of the road surface, including road conditions and surface temperature. Special sensors for measuring the salinity of road water will help predict and recalculate the freezing point. The Technical Requirements for the execution of the contract, presented in Appendix A of the participation documentation, list the mandatory basic indicators to be measured, as well as additional indicators that can provide more detailed information about road conditions. The requirements for basic functionalities and the minimum standards that the weather sensors and road condition sensors must meet are specified. All sensors will be connected to the API central server, which collects, stores, and analyzes the data and maintains communication between the individual components, after which the monitoring software will process the data and have the functionality to send real-time reported information. The weather stations will be powered by the electrical grid and will utilize the established 5G communication. The coordinates for the installation of the 8 weather stations will be located on API properties and on already constructed suitable facilities, as specified in Appendix A - Technical Requirements for the execution of the contract, which contains a List of GPS coordinates for the locations where the weather stations will be installed. *Note: A detailed description of the subject of the public procurement is provided in the Technical Requirements for the execution of the contract (Appendix A), attached to the public procurement documentation!