Skip to main content

McCann lights up the M1 in major upgrade

UK engineering firm J. McCann is installing 500 lighting columns and accessories as part of a major 12km upgrade to one of England’s busiest motorways.
January 7, 2019 Read time: 1 min

UK engineering firm J. McCann is installing 500 lighting columns and accessories as part of a major 12km upgrade to one of England’s busiest motorways. The year-long project on the M1 between junctions 23a – 25 is expected to finish sometime this autumn. Work includes 100,000m of lighting cable, 12,000m of lighting duct infrastructure, 40,000m of communication cable and 230 communication cabinets. McCann is also installing technology to 27 new gantries as well as 13 existing gantries in the Smart Motorway upgrade.


The project includes conversion of the hard shoulder to create a fourth lane between junctions 24 and 25 as well as alterations to junctions 24 and 25 to accommodate the new fourth lane. It also includes the implementation of variable speed limits and associated smart motorway systems, new CCTV systems and electronic signage, a hardened central reservation and a queue detection system to control congestion. As a subcontractor, McCann has been working alongside 2319 Costain and Galliford Try for client 8100 Highways England. The company has also worked on smart motorway schemes for main contractor Costain - namely improvements between M1 junctions 32 to 35a and M1 junctions 19 to 16.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Auckland’s causeway project
    April 4, 2014
    When it is finished in early 2017, the causeway on Auckland’s North-western Motorway, State Highway 16, will have been raised 1.5m to stop flooding at extreme high tides. There will be four lanes city-bound and four/five lanes westbound with dedicated bus lanes in each direction, and the existing North-western cycleway that runs alongside it will be upgraded.
  • Svevia to renovate Sweden's Smögen Bridge
    March 22, 2023
    The seven-pillar box-beam bridge will remain open but with limited traffic during the repairs.
  • Solving congestion in Brisbane
    August 2, 2012
    Rapid growth in a major Australian city in recent years has created new problems for the infrastructure and especially transport Expansion in the city of Brisbane, the Queensland state capital and the third largest city in the country, is set to continue and some 1,500 people arrive/week from within Australia and from other parts of the world. At this rate by 2026 the city's population should increase by 1.4 million: at present it is 1.8 million. To cope, the Queensland government and city council have ini
  • Tunisian road upgrades planned
    November 21, 2022
    Tunisian road upgrades are being planned.