Case Study: Thungela improves mine-site pedestrian and traffic flow with AnyLogic simulation software

Pedestrian and Traffic Management for the Design of a Parking Facility

Thungela, a leading South African thermal coal exporter, needed to solve traffic and pedestrian congestion at its Khwezela Colliery during shift changes. The mine’s parking infrastructure, shuttle transfers, alcohol testing, and outdated security setup were creating bottlenecks, and Thungela used AnyLogic simulation software to assess how a new parking facility and entry process should be designed.

AnyLogic built a simulation model to test parking layouts, shuttle capacity, boom gates, turnstiles, and pedestrian flows under different conditions. The analysis confirmed the right parking size and identified the number of turnstiles, boom gates, and shuttle seats needed to avoid bottlenecks, while also quantifying realistic wait times—about 30 minutes for a 36-seat shuttle versus 50 minutes for a 22-seat shuttle, and up to 10 minutes for vehicle queues at the entry gate—supporting a safer and smoother employee entry process.

Thungela