Skip to main content

UK driver information improvements near completion

A major investment in technology to help tackle congestion and give better information to drivers across parts of the UK’s north west will be completed by the Highways Agency by the end of the month. Improvements worth more than US$8.5 million, with extended CCTV coverage of the region’s motorways and new electronic variable message signs (VMS), are being delivered by the Highways Agency as part of the Government’ US$470 million pinch point programme. Work on installing new electronic signs and CCTV c
March 27, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A major investment in technology to help tackle congestion and give better information to drivers across parts of the UK’s north west will be completed by the 503 Highways Agency by the end of the month.

Improvements worth more than US$8.5 million, with extended CCTV coverage of the region’s motorways and new electronic variable message signs (VMS), are being delivered by the Highways Agency as part of the Government’ US$470 million pinch point programme.

Work on installing new electronic signs and CCTV cameras, which will give Highways Agency traffic officers and partner organisations like the police better intelligence on incidents and queues, started at the end of last year and is due to be completed by 31 March.

The schemes, due for completion at the end of the month, are in addition to technology schemes already delivered through the Pinch Point programme on the M6 at junction 33 and junction 35 around Lancaster where new electronic signs have been installed to give drivers better warning of hazards, incidents and congestion. New VMS signs are also currently being installed at both ends of the A590 in Cumbria.

Highways Agency project manager Philip Tyrrell said: “These new electronic signs will give better information to drivers when there is congestion and incidents. The extended CCTV coverage will ensure we have better intelligence and allow our traffic officers and partners to provide an even more effective response to incidents and congestion – boosting safety and journey times.”

Related Content

  • April 8, 2014
    UK defaults to hard shoulder running to expand motorway capacity
    Hard shoulder running has become the UK’s default response to increasing motorway capacity as Colin Sowman reports. Facing a predicted 46% increase in traffic levels by 2040 and the current economic recovery leading to more people travelling to, from and for work leaves the UK government under short- and long-term pressure to increase the capacity on the main motorway network. Particular sections of motorways are already experiencing repeated, sometimes tidal, congestion and both tight Treasury limits and t
  • September 15, 2014
    Congestion-busting roads boost across England
    A widespread congestion-busting road improvement programme worth hundreds of millions of pounds has now tackled 39 bottlenecks, with more than another 80 to be completed in the next seven months. According to the Highways Agency, the US$515 million ‘pinch point’ programme will cut congestion, increase safety and improve journey times and help support the creation of 300,000 new jobs and 144,000 homes. The improvement plans, part of the biggest programme of road enhancements since the 1970s, were dra
  • July 9, 2014
    Work starts on more UK smart motorways
    Three new major motorway schemes on the M1 and M3 will cut congestion and give Britain's drivers smoother, quicker journeys, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced. Construction will now start on the M1 junctions 28-31 in Derbyshire, M1 junctions 32-35a in South Yorkshire and on the M3 at junction 2-4a in Surrey. The new schemes are central to the Government's long term economic plan and part of US$41 billion of investment in the road network by 2021, which will see spending tripled to U
  • December 12, 2016
    Improved safety information in M55 signs upgrade
    A US$567,000 (£450,000) Highways England project to provide drivers using the M55 in Lancashire with better warnings about congestion, incidents and bad weather has been completed. Five of the latest electronic variable message signs, which can display pictorial as well as text messages, have been installed along the eastern end of the motorway between junction 1 at Broughton and the interchange with junction 32 of the M6. The new signs will allow Highways England traffic officers at the North West Re