Skip to main content

UK’s M6 to get VMS to boost safety

Four of the latest variable message signs (VMS) are to be installed around junction 35 of the M6 motorway at Carnforth, giving drivers better warnings of incidents and other information about the motorway such as weather conditions. As part of the work, new CCTV cameras will be mounted on the VMS signs and standalone masts, allowing Highways Agency traffic officers at the North West Regional Control Centre at Newton-le-Willows to monitor and manage motorway incidents more effectively. A similar, US$2
November 18, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Four of the latest variable message signs (VMS) are to be installed around junction 35 of the M6 motorway at Carnforth, giving drivers better warnings of incidents and other information about the motorway such as weather conditions.

As part of the work, new CCTV cameras will be mounted on the VMS signs and standalone masts, allowing 503 Highways Agency traffic officers at the North West Regional Control Centre at Newton-le-Willows to monitor and manage motorway incidents more effectively.

A similar, US$2.6 million project to provide new VMS and CCTV cameras around junction 33 of the M6 at Galgate was delivered earlier this year.

Highways Agency project manager Dan Foster said: “This significant investment in technology along this section of the M6 in Lancashire is being delivered through the Government’s pinch point programme and will boost the amount and frequency of information we can give to motorway users, helping to provide safer and more reliable journeys.

“The better intelligence provided by the additional cameras will also make it easier for Highways Agency traffic officers and partners like the police to respond to and manage incidents – again boosting safety and journey reliability.”

The new signs and cameras will be placed a mile and half a mile in each direction from junction 35 with two more cameras erected on standalone masts.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • California DOT implements smart corridor
    October 14, 2013
    The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) recently completed a smart corridor project on State Route 12 in Solano, Sacramento and San Joaquin counties, and I-5 in San Joaquin County. The project utilises intelligent transportation system (ITS) technology for five electronic message signs and four closed-circuit TV cameras to provide drivers with up to date travel information, enabling them to choose an alternate route in the event of congestion or roadway incidents.
  • Imtech receives significant traffic technology orders
    January 15, 2013
    European technical services provider Royal Imtech (Imtech) has been awarded a series of contracts worth US$57.5 million to upgrade the current traffic infrastructure in Stockholm, Moscow, Dublin and Copenhagen, as well as providing the technical infrastructure in a double-deck tunnel in Maastricht, Holland. The company will implement a Motorway Traffic Management (MTM) system on the E18 motorway in Sweden, an important road link in the northern part of Stockholm, featuring two tunnels and used by 50,000 veh
  • Preparing for unpredictable precipitation
    August 18, 2015
    ITS solutions are helping streamline winter road maintenance for Delaware and Illinois, two states that must deal with dynamic weather and varying snowfall totals. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. Wilmington and Newark (pronounced new-ark) are two vastly different cities that sit on opposite ends of Delaware. Newark is a sleepy university town of roughly 30,000 residents abutting the state’s western border with Maryland and Pennsylvania, and often gets confused with its larger namesake in New Jersey.
  • TMCs reflect New York State of mind for Kapsch TrafficCom
    June 30, 2025
    Company will operate traffic management centres in Rochester and Hornell