Highway & Network Management

French road building contractor Charier has introduced the SolarRoad kit (SRK) on a newly laid cycle path in Etampes, France. Two SRK units convert sunlight to electricity and provide lighting for a roundabout near Etampes, a small commune of around 26,000 people about 50km south-west of Paris. The installation helps Charier meet sustainability objectives within the framework of the Paris Agreement. An SRK has four elements of 2.5m x 3.5m and delivers around 3,500kWh per year, which according to Solar R

Mott MacDonald has developed a Motorway to Motorway (M2M) metering pilot scheme. This has been developed for Highways England and is being trialled between junction 21A of the M6 and junction 10 of the M62. The project is intended to smooth traffic flows and reduce the number of queues that occur because of congestion.

UK government agency Highways England has awarded telent Technology Services with a major contract to manage over 30,000 roadside assets including messages signs and cameras. Under the seven-year deal worth around €510 million, telent Technology will run the agency’s National Roads Telecommunications Service in England. The centre connects seven regional control centres as well as the national traffic operations centre.

Highways England, the government agency overseeing England’s motorways and A roads, has selected Advanced as its IT partner in a deal worth over €7.5 million. The multi-year contract, which started immediately, sees Advanced provide Highways England with secure and compliant IT infrastructure hosting.Highways England is committed to safely keeping traffic moving and better informing its customers, key initiatives detailed in its strategic business plan published in April 2015. As part of this, it is moving

Borum reports that it has seen increased acceptance of rumble strips globally, especially in the US, Australia and Denmark. The company, based in Denmark, notes that international studies demonstrate the effectiveness of centerline rumble strips for reducing road traffic accidents, especially in rural areas. While some studies show a reduction in head-on collision accidents of around 20%, other international studies suggest that they can reduce accidents by up to 55%. The profiled application of Borum’s rum

Chubb Systems has launched a television outstation (TVOS) as an all-weather traffic monitoring CCTV camera system. Chubb’s TVOS also meets the specific technical specifications required by Highways England for its Road Investment Strategy. Chubb, a leading provider of security and fire-safety solutions, is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies. The TVOS unit delivers images in ultra-low and zero-light conditions, thanks to its infrared array, explained said Dave Dunnagan

Spanish global IT business Indra Sistemas is to join Harmony, a pan-European multimodal transport connectivity study. Harmony aims to develop technologies for integrating real-time data from different transport users and operators to improve multimodal information services. Indra will be focussed on a pilot project in Madrid, developed with the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Indra is working with research groups G@TV and TranSYT from the Polytechnic University of Madrid along with support from Grupo

In the coming age of the autonomous vehicle, fast and accurate LiDAR surveying will be increasingly important, explains Valdis Vanags. The game-changing introduction of autonomous vehicles relies not only on intelligent traffic systems but well maintained roads to help computer-guided systems navigate using road markings. Laser scanning technology, too, is a game changer when it comes to planning and executing many civil engineering projects, including transport network upgrades and smart city initiatives.