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

  • Balfour Beatty lifts bridge into place over UK’s M54
    May 14, 2014
    In the UK, Balfour Beatty has lifted a new bridge into place over the M54 motorway as part of a €14.56 million (£12 million) project to connect a new high-tech business park to the road network and to provide access for the new Jaguar Land Rover plant. The bridge, which will serve the i54 business park in South Staffordshire, was delivered for Staffordshire County Council, Wolverhampton City Council and South Staffordshire Council, as part of the Midlands Highways Alliance framework.
    Read More
  • TISPOL Conference: autonomous vehicles high on safety agenda
    February 2, 2017
    Safety and autonomous vehicles exercised the minds of some of Europe’s senior police officers at the recent TISPOL European Traffic Police Network Conference in the UK. The European Union looks like missing its target of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020. Just when European police forces are trying to get back on target, along comes the autonomous vehicle with all its inherent safety issues.
    Read More
  • Philipp Swarovski lays down the marker
    June 10, 2019
    Swarco’s chief operating officer Philipp Swarovski shares his thoughts on highway safety and infrastructure in an age of uncertain future needs. David Arminas reports It was in Austria in 1969 when Manfred Swarovski opened his first glass bead factory. Five years later, operations started in the US. As the years rolled by there followed acquisitions and expansion of manufacturing facilities as well as a shift into intelligent transportation systems globally. Fast forward to 2019 and the family compan
    Read More
  • Upgrades planned for key UK link
    July 14, 2014
    Work is now to go ahead on upgrading a key stretch of the A21 road in the UK. Contractor Balfour Beatty will handle the work to widen a stretch of the A21 between Tonbridge and Pembury and also improve the road, with it becoming a dual carriageway. The €87.55 million (£69.7 million) scheme forms part of a plan by the UK Government for a series of road improvements of €30.15 billion (£24 billion) by 2021. Advance work is expected to start in the third quarter of this year with the main construction activity
    Read More

Highlighted Content