M25 upgraded to ‘smart’ motorway

Road users on the vast majority of the UK’s M25 will benefit from four-lane capacity now that the final section between junctions 25 and 27 has become a smart motorway. The road has been upgraded from three to four lanes in each direction, with the hard shoulder converted for use as a permanent traffic lane and enhanced on-road technology to manage traffic flow to improve the reliability of journey times, providing a boost for businesses and the wider economy.
November 10, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Road users on the vast majority of the UK’s M25 will benefit from four-lane capacity now that the final section between junctions 25 and 27 has become a smart motorway. The road has been upgraded from three to four lanes in each direction, with the hard shoulder converted for use as a permanent traffic lane and enhanced on-road technology to manage traffic flow to improve the reliability of journey times, providing a boost for businesses and the wider economy.

The improvements on all sections of the M25 are part of a new generation of technology-driven improvements on the strategic road network known as ‘smart motorways’ with the permanent conversion of the hard shoulder for traffic, providing 24/7 extra capacity. The new infrastructure and technology that has been added between junctions 25 and 27 includes gantries spanning both carriageways, refuge areas, emergency telephones, overhead signals, verge-mounted signs and CCTV cameras.

Roads minister John Hayes said: “This upgrade is great news for 140,000 motorists who use this section of the M25 every day. It will mean smoother journeys, less congestion and provide a real boost to those businesses US$38 billion commitment to improve Britain’s roads by 2021 is helping to deliver a smarter motorway network that drives forward our economy and gets people to their destinations safely and on time.”

John Martin, 503 Highways Agency project manager said: “The new smart motorway will provide extra capacity and offer more reliable journeys. I would like to ask drivers to get smart and find out more about how to use it, the types of signs and signals they will see and what to do in the unlikely event of a breakdown."

Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Asecap prepares for ‘interoperability on steroids’
    March 31, 2023
    The gathering of Europe’s toll professionals offers a chance for views to be exchanged by senior people on a number of big issues: and there’s currently an awful lot to think about, reports Geoff Hadwick
    Read More
  • ITS asset management matters
    April 26, 2013
    Maintenance of on-road ITS kit needs to become more sophisticated; while new technologies can deliver better road maintenance. David Crawford investigates both sides of the issue "Good information is key to effective ITS asset maintenance,” says Ian Routledge of the Ian Routledge Consultancy (IRC), whose Imtrac (Information Management for TRAffic Control) system is poised for European expansion. Developed as an ‘intelligent filing cabinet’ for storing information about on-road equipment, the online database
    Read More
  • Wireless bridges widen options for ITS upgrades
    December 9, 2014
    Antaira Technologies’ marketing engineer Brian Roth explains why the increasing capacity of wireless bridges is reducing the cost of expanding and upgrading ITS networks. With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, the need for efficient transportation of both people and goods has never been greater and that pressure is unlikely to ease any time soon. Indeed in many regions of the world the rate of urbanisation is still increasing as the demand for rural workers continues to decline.
    Read More
  • Navtech Radar’s ClearWay in motorway trials
    March 26, 2014
    Navtech Radar, the world’s leading manufacturer of Radar-based Automatic Incident Detection (AID) solutions for traffic management applications, is supplying its ClearWay radar-based automatic incident detection (AID) solution planned trials on hard shoulder running on strategic motorways in the north of England. The trials are part of a new, all-lane-running smart motorways scheme. For the initial trials, Navtech Radar has supplied ten TS350-X Radars and the sophisticated Witness analytical software. E
    Read More

Highlighted Content