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

  • Mott MacDonald picks up Highways England’s operations centre deal
    March 28, 2018
    Mott MacDonald will set up an asset management system as part of Highways England’s new technology operations centre. Under the T-TOC contract - Tools for the Technology Operations Centre – Mott MacDonald will work with Fujitsu which will develop a suite of software systems to monitor and manage electronic assets across Highways England’s network. Highways England has nearly 100,000 intelligent infrastructure devices across England’s strategic road network – trunk roads and motorways. T-TOC will enable a
  • Brazilian roads benefit from upgrades with milling machines
    September 10, 2014
    Super-fine milling is a technique that has been used in Brazil to rehabilitate roads for the World Cup The rehabilitation work had to be carried out speedily and economically, while minimising traffic disruption. To meet these requirements, contractor Fremix Engenharia e Comércio has been using a Wirtgen W200 cold milling machine that is fitted with a super-fine milling drum.
  • Continuous paving for smoother roads
    May 9, 2017
    UK contractor Aggregate Industries is now able to deliver smoother road surfaces thanks to the latest addition to its machine fleet. The firm is a pioneer for the use of material transfer vehicles (MTV) that allow for uninterrupted, non-contacting flow of materials into a paver. As a result, the firm says it is able to help deliver road projects more efficiently and economically. The company has acquired the latest Vögele MT 3000-2i Offset Powerfeeder. Equipped with a pivoting conveyor this machine allows t
  • Telent pick up more UK ITS deals for traffic management
    June 10, 2019
    Telent Technology Services has been awarded a major eight-year traffic signals and ITS maintenance contract for England’s Essex county. The award was given to Telent, a UK-based company, by the contractor Ringway Jacobs on behalf of the Essex Highways Partnership. The deal will include maintenance of 231 traffic signal junctions, 262 traffic signal crossings, four emergency wig-wag lights, 30 car park count sites, 48 car park guidance Variable Message Signs (VMS), 17 vehicle actuated signs and 398 school