Skip to main content

Arup and Amey to design Australian smart motorway project

Arup, working with Amey, is to deliver the M4 Smart Motorway project, said to be the first of its kind in New South Wales, Australia. The commission includes all technology and civil works, spanning from detailed design through to construction support services.
September 28, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

7942 Arup, working with 6110 Amey, is to deliver the M4 Smart Motorway project, said to be the first of its kind in New South Wales, Australia.

The commission includes all technology and civil works, spanning from detailed design through to construction support services.

The M4 Smart Motorway project will introduce intelligent technology to monitor traffic conditions, manage congestion and respond to incidents in real-time on the existing M4 Western Motorway. The project aims to increase traffic throughput, with a potential reduction of peak travel times by up to 15 minutes and accidents by up to 30 per cent.

The Arup and Amey team was originally formed in England, combining Arup’s technical expertise with Amey’s operational management to win a recent design package of the Smart Motorway Programme on the M1. This considerable international knowledge, combined with both firms' local highways experience, was a significant asset in securing this project.

The local team drew heavily on the knowledge of their UK counterparts, with key international members joining the design team and attending interviews with Roads and Maritime NSW throughout the tender process.

Key features of the project will include additional traffic sensors and CCTV cameras to monitor traffic conditions; and variable message signs, speed limits and lane use signs to be able to adapt to demand.  Ramp signals will assist by managing traffic flow onto the motorway.

Due to be completed in 2020, the project will bring the M4 into a select class of Smart Motorways in Australia, including another recent Arup project, Melbourne’s M1 Monash and Westgate Freeway Upgrade.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Is driver information heading for multi-channel mayhem
    October 22, 2013
    Colin Sowman talks to TRL’s research director Dr Alan Stevens about the future for cash-strapped road authorities’ driver information systems.
  • Arup report reveals the future of highways
    December 3, 2014
    Future highways will be made from self-healing, glow-in-the-dark materials and will be governed by sophisticated technologies that communicate with cars, road infrastructure and GPS systems, according to the Future of Highways report from global engineering and design consultancy, Arup.
  • Carrots are proving cost-effective in Netherlands
    October 3, 2018
    There are lessons to be learned from congestion avoidance schemes in the Netherlands. David Crawford welcomes some new thinking in road pricing. Highway operators worldwide are being urged to learn from Dutch experience in using financial carrots rather than sticks to encourage drivers to avoid contributing to congestion. A Netherlands/UK group makes a convincing cost/benefit case in a new global survey of road pricing technologies, economics and acceptability. Representing the Rijkswaterstaat section of
  • Urban tunnel replaces viaduct, improves safety
    October 10, 2012
    Earthquake sensors, automatic barriers and real time monitoring systems are all part of a scheme to make a major Seattle traffic artery safer, by taking it underground. Huw Williams reports. Seattle’s metropolitan area of 3.5 million people, like much of the western seaboard of the United States, lies in an earthquake zone. In Seattle’s case, the city and its hinterland sit atop a complex network of interrelated active geological faults capable of severe seismic activity and posing complex considerations fo