Highways England

Jacobs Engineering Group has been appointed by Highways England to develop preferred options for multiple highways schemes planned in the east, south-east and north-west regions of England. Jacobs is providing engineering design services for civil engineering works and traffic technology, surveys, stakeholder engagement, environmental services, traffic modelling, building information modelling and principal designer services under the Construction (Design and Management) 2015 regulations. The stage t

Frazer-Nash, the systems and engineering technology company, has been appointed by Highways England to support the Common Highways Agency Rijkswaterstaat Model (CHARM) advanced traffic management system (ATMS) programme. CHARM is a collaboration between Highways England and the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat to develop an integrated ATMS for the UK and Dutch highways. Frazer-Nash will apply its expertise in safety critical transport and emergency service control rooms, and its behavioural science knowledge to

Plans to convert hundreds of miles of UK motorway hard shoulder into permanent driving lanes should be scrapped while major safety concerns exist, the Government’s Transport Committee has said. In 'all lane running', the latest version of smart motorways, the hard shoulder is used as a live lane of traffic. Previous schemes have only used the hard shoulder at peak times or to deal with congestion. The Committee did not agree with Government that this is an incremental change and a logical extension of

Intelligent traffic systems company Siemens has begun working on its latest Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) project, in a collaborative partnership to create one of the most advanced environments for CAV technologies in the UK. Together with nine other consortium members, the UK Connected Intelligent Transport Environment (UK CITE) project will see trials on UK roads as early as next year, following a successful application for funding from the Government’s US%$144 million (£100 million) Intelli

Audio-visual systems integrator Electrosonic has recently installed a dynamic display system (DDS) at Highways England’s Eastern Regional Control Centre in South Mimms. Comprising of LED illuminated cubes, the new DDS technology provides a solution that is virtually maintenance free, energy efficient and suitable for 24/7 usage. Electrosonic installed an 8x3 array of Mitsubishi Electric 67PE78, 67-inch SXGA+ LED illuminated cubes, which are brighter, of higher resolution and use less power than their pre

Inspired by the aviation industry, a new vehicle developed by Highways England to help replace overhead signs is set to reduce the duration of roadworks. The vehicle is based on the design of an aircraft catering vehicle, which loads refreshments into aeroplanes using a hydraulic scissor lift. Traditionally, signs are taken down and installed using a flat-bed truck, crane and cherry picker, taking up to 40 minutes. However the new Maintenance Assistance Vehicle (MAV) can do this in around 20 to 25 min

A contract to deliver a new central traffic signal control and management system for the UK’s south east has been placed by Highways England with Simulation Systems (SSL) to meet both the immediate and future requirements of Highways England for England’s motorway and major A-roads. Central to the contract will be Siemens Stratos cloud-hosted, fully integrated traffic control and management solution and hosted-SCOOT, the real time UTC and adaptive traffic control system already used to manage and co-ordinat

Highways England (HE) is to invest US$213.5 million (£150 million) on new technology, including trials of driverless car technology on motorways. As part of its innovation strategy, HE may introduce a connected corridor, or ‘wi-fi road’, which could see cars and infrastructure wirelessly connected, with drivers receiving news of advanced road closures or congestion warnings. The strategy also includes trialling radar technology on motorways and in tunnels to improve the way breakdowns are detected. A

A US$124.8 million (£88.4 million) project to upgrade access to one of the UK’s busiest ports is trialling the use of technology to improve the monitoring of highway equipment located along the road, such as street lighting and drainage, to aid future maintenance. Contractors working on the A160 Port of Immingham improvement scheme are using the RedBite asset tool, developed by a Cambridge-based company, to tag Highways England owned assets. RedBite is a spin-out from the University of Cambridge and a m

A village in Derbyshire, UK, is tackling the issue of speeding drivers by installing the latest Swarco Traffic moveable vehicle activated signs (MVAS), lightweight portable signs designed specifically for parish councils to improve road safety and encourage safer driving speeds. Signs are installed at either end of the main road through the village, although there are three pairs of locations where the signs can be placed. Approved for use by Highways England, they are simple to deploy, feature a besp