Skip to main content

Simulation Systems wins England traffic signal management upgrade

Highways England has awarded a contract to deliver a central traffic signal control and management system for south-east England to Simulation Systems Limited (SSL) Central to the contract, for England’s motorway and major A-roads, will be a Siemens Stratos system which is designed to be the UK’s first cloud-hosted, fully integrated traffic control and management solution. The project will also include Hosted-SCOOT, a real time UTC and adaptive traffic control system. It is already used to manage and
June 21, 2016 Read time: 3 mins
A single hosted solution for south-east England
Highways England has awarded a contract to deliver a central traffic signal control and management system for south-east England to Simulation Systems Limited (SSL)

Central to the contract, for England’s motorway and major A-roads, will be a 1134 Siemens Stratos system which is designed to be the UK’s first cloud-hosted, fully integrated traffic control and management solution.

The project will also include Hosted-SCOOT, a real time UTC and adaptive traffic control system. It is already used to manage and co-ordinate traffic control for 76 UK authorities, including the control of many 8100 Highways England junctions.

The Siemens Stratos system will replace the existing UTC control system for London’s orbital motorway, the M25. It will bring the control of sites in central southern England and the south-east under the control of the new system. There will be expansion capacity for other regional areas.

Gary Cox, product sales manager for Simulation Systems urban systems area, said the functionality offered by PC SCOOT has been migrated into Stratos to offer the module known as Hosted-SCOOT. “This allows UTC and SCOOT-controlled junctions to be quickly migrated to Stratos control where the sites already have UG405 outstations and IP communications in place,” he said.

SSL, based near Bristol in south-west England, has already started delivery of a traffic signals module to Highways England. When linked to the latest generation of IP outstations, it will offer on a single platform the functionality of two previously offered but separate systems.

This provides Highways England with a single hosted solution for both real-time control and monitoring. The hosted system will be accessed through secure internet-based connections providing the flexibility to operate the system from many locations by many operators.

SSL said that older sites can be easily upgraded by means of installing new UG405-compliant outstations and moving to IP communications. This can be done by either upgrading the existing analogue leased line to broadband or by providing easily deployed 3G technology.

A planned move to IP communications as part of this project implementation will allow Highways England to avoid any potential interruptions to future control as a result of withdrawing any analogue communication lines over the next few years. SSL said that Highways England has already made significant progress on this, noted SSL managing director Louis Thompson.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Ringway wins Highways England southwest maintenance-response deal
    April 12, 2017
    Ringway, part of Eurovia UK, won the Highways England southwest area Maintenance and response contract. The 15-year term starts 1 July and is worth between nearly €18-35 million a year. Ringway will be responsible for maintenance of 1,695km of strategic road network within the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. This includes all cyclic maintenance, reactive maintenance, incident response, severe weather response and associated traffic management. “This is
  • WJ Guardian system keeps stud installers safer in workzones
    January 26, 2017
    WJ’s latest innovation is a method of road stud installation designed to remove vulnerable operatives from the carriageway The bespoke design of the WJ Guardian system allows the complete road stud installation process to take place while protecting operatives within an integrated safety cell of an 18tonne truck. The UK has used 12 million road studs on its national and local road network, all requiring maintenance or replacement at some point. Traditional methods of installation by hand or milling ma
  • In control - with machine control technology
    June 21, 2016
    Advances with machine control technologies are providing major benefits right across the construction sector - Mike Woof writes With the massive bauma 2016 exhibition now having run its course, the construction sector look set to benefit from a range of new machine control technologies. These systems are being offered across a range of different segments in the equipment sector. Bulldozing was one of the first portions of the earthmoving segment to benefit from machine control systems, but a vast array o
  • New concrete testing technologies improve speed, safety and quality
    July 8, 2016
    Developments in data processing and management are revolutionising the way concrete strengths can be measured and used to improve efficiencies - Kristina Smith reports on two new technologies A new system that uses thermal imaging to measure the strength of sprayed concrete tunnel linings is being trialled for the first time in London. The brainchild of Dr Benoit Jones, managing director of Inbye Engineering, the technique could lead to improvements in safety, quality and – in the longer run – productivi