UK’s Saltash Tunnel gets hi-tech safety upgrade

The UK's Saltash Tunnel is undergoing a major US$1.53 million upgrade to the incident detection system to provide quicker detection of vehicle fires and other incidents. The scheme will see close to 5,000m of cable installed inside the 410m tunnel on the A38 in the county of Cornwall in England. Overall design of the new system and integrated control systems are from PDS – Paul Ducker Systems – and includes smoke detectors from UK firm SICK Sensor Intelligence and SmartVision fiber-optic temperature sensi
June 4, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
More than US$1.5 million of new safety equipment is being installed in the Saltash Tunnel in England
The UK's Saltash Tunnel is undergoing a major US$1.53 million upgrade to the incident detection system to provide quicker detection of vehicle fires and other incidents.


The scheme will see close to 5,000m of cable installed inside the 410m tunnel on the A38 in the county of Cornwall in England.

Overall design of the new system and integrated control systems are from PDS – Paul Ducker Systems – and includes smoke detectors from UK firm 3316 SICK Sensor Intelligence and SmartVision fiber-optic temperature sensing systems from AP Sensing in Germany. Way-finding signs are from Roomfoss.

All the systems will be aligned to the public address system – installed along with a new CCTV system two years ago - to direct drivers to the safest tunnel exit in the event of an incident, according to 8100 Highways England.

The tunnel, which opened in 1988, has a speed limit of 50kph and a reversible central lane to cope with holiday and rush hour traffic. Each day, more than 38,000 motorists use the tunnel  that was designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson, built by 1146 Balfour Beatty and has a design life of at least 100 years.

Highways England said it will hold joint emergency test exercises with the fire services and police when work is finished sometime this spring.

Highway & Network Management

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • UK’s M6 tolled motorway for sale
    June 21, 2016
    For sale: one UK toll motorway along with operating business. Well maintained. Price negotiable. David Arminas looks at what is on offer As if right on cue, a French articulated truck starts to back up along the hard shoulder at an exit area of M6toll. The manoeuvring is watched from an office inside the nearby M6toll headquarters. Inside, Andy Pearson, chief executive of M6toll, glances over his shoulder and interrupts his presentation to World Highways. “He’s probably missed the dedicated wide-load
    Read More
  • Swarco signs for slower Swansea speed limit
    June 30, 2023
    In March, the Welsh government passed a law which from September will see the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales reduced from 30mph (50kph) to 20mph (32kph).
    Read More
  • Tunnel vision with TrafiBot camera
    November 26, 2024

    Flir has launched the closed circuit TrafiBot Dual AI multispectral camera system specifically to improve safety in tunnels and on bridges.

    Flir, part of Teledyne Technologies, noted that it is in tunnels and on bridge that where drivers are most at risk for hitting unseen objects or being trapped by fast-growing vehicle fires.

    Read More
  • The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme takes shape
    May 31, 2017
    Highways England’s project manager gives sneak peek into progress on the UK’s biggest road upgrade now under construction. Road construction workers often find interesting buried items when building roads and the UK’s A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme is proving the point. It’s been less than half a year since construction started on the €1.76 billion A14 scheme, Highways England’s largest ongoing project. Highways England is the wholly government-owned company responsible for modernising, main
    Read More

Highlighted Content