UK’s M3 motorway gets first orange smart motorway emergency area

The first of a new-style smart motorway emergency stop area is being trialled on the M3 in England’s county Surrey. The redesigned emergency area has a highly visible orange road surface and better signs to help improve its visibility make it more obvious to drivers on smart motorways, according to Highways England.
July 19, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Highways England: safer with an orange

The first of a new-style smart motorway emergency stop area is being trialled on the M3 in England’s county Surrey.

The redesigned emergency area has a highly visible orange road surface and better signs to help improve its visibility make it more obvious to drivers on smart motorways, according to 8100 Highways England.

The first of the new emergency areas went live on the M3 near the town of Camberley in July. More upgrades are planned should the trial be successful, said Highways England.  This change is part of an ongoing review into the design and spacing of emergency areas on smart motorways that is due to report in the autumn, said Jim O’Sullivan, Highways England chief executive.

Smart motorways use variable speed limits to manage traffic flow, new technology to give drivers better information on road conditions ahead and – in smart motorway upgrades delivered since 2004 – convert the hard shoulder into an extra traffic lane.

Highways England is the wholly government-owned company responsible for modernising, maintaining and operating England’s motorways and major A roads.

Road Markings, Barriers & Workzone Protection

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Mott MacDonald’s motorway to motorway metering
    December 20, 2017
    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.
    Read More
  • IBI’s Routemapper charts new territory with Highways England
    September 14, 2016
    Mapping the asset High-speed data collection just got faster for England’s newly created strategic roads operator Highways England’s establishment as a publicly held company in 2015 created a need for a highly accurate asset inventory. This was potentially very costly and had serious safety implications. As well as its relationships with numerous managing agents and contractors, assets include 35,300km of highway, 12,100km of earthworks, 23,200km of safety fences, 150,000 technology assets and sig
    Read More
  • Tackling the UK's traffic congestion
    February 28, 2012
    The biggest problem on UK roads is congestion, and there is no shortage of ideas as to how it should be tackled. Patrick Smith reports. Congestion (and how to relieve it), along with safety, are among the top priorities facing those responsible for looking after the UK's roads. Road pricing, car-share lanes, greener vehicle initiatives and alternative methods of transport such as buses, trams and rail are all part of the approach, but prior to the current economic climate the nation's love affair with the c
    Read More
  • Widening works: road user’s nightmare or operator’s challenge?
    March 14, 2017
    Early - and continuous planning - is essential for successful road widening projects. By Nina Sacagiu, project manager, and Laurent Charles-Nicolas, project director, at Egis. Keeping goods and people moving safely is the primary objective of any transport authority across the world. Delivering this objective on motorways and making the most out of network capacity requires all the resources, skills and ingenuity of those in charge of managing the infrastructure. When the network can no longer cope wit
    Read More

Highlighted Content