Highways England awards NRTS contract to Telent Technology services

Highways England (HE) has awarded the second National Roads Telecommunications Service (NRTS) contract, valued £450m ($602m), to Telent Technology Services. The project aims to keep road users as safe and informed as possible on the UK's motorways and will run for seven years from March 2018. In addition, this technology will also continue to support the smart motorway and expressway programmes.
December 19, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
8101 Highways England (HE) has awarded the second National Roads Telecommunications Service (NRTS) contract, valued £450m ($602m), to 525 Telent Technology Services. The project aims to keep road users as safe and informed as possible on the UK's motorways and will run for seven years from March 2018. In addition, this technology will also continue to support the smart motorway and expressway programmes.


The new service will renew equipment and provide an open, flexible and scalable telecommunications network to meet the future needs of the business as well as support HE in the development of connected vehicles and 5G.

NRTS connects HE's seven regional control centres, the national traffic operations centre and the 30,000 roadside technology assets including message signs, CCTV cameras and emergency roadside telephones.

These items include 3,327 CCTV cameras, 3,774 message signs, 229 weather stations and 7,155 SOS phones. The network enables traffic information services to provide accurate, real-time travel information to drivers and travel news providers. The message signs help warn drivers of potential hazards and display real-time journey information.

Tony Malone, chief information officer at HE, said: “Safety is at the heart of everything we do and this network, the central nervous system for England’s motorways, enables us to operate safe roads. We are pleased to be working with Telent Technology Services to deliver the reliability, resilience and innovation that will enable us to keep drivers safe and informed on our roads.”

Urban Traffic Control

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.
    Read More
  • Serco wins Dubai Metro contract extension to 2021
    April 10, 2019
    Serco has signed a two-year extension with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to continue operating and maintaining Dubai Metro until September 2021. HE Mattar Al Tayer, director general and chairman of the board of executive directors of the RTA, says: “Serco has delivered operational performance levels on the Dubai Metro with a high train service availability of 99.9% and a punctuality of 99.8%, achieving a record of 204 million journeys in 2018.” The £140m contract includes the operation
    Read More
  • IRD wins $4.1m maintenance contract
    August 25, 2021
    IRD to maintain and maximise performance of Illinois’ state-wide weigh in motion network
    Read More
  • Swarco to deploy traffic solutions at University of Warwick
    June 10, 2019
    Swarco Traffic is to provide traffic solutions and smart technologies to deliver parking guidance across the University of Warwick’s campus in the UK city of Coventry. Tony Gillings, project manager at Swarco Traffic, says the technologies will “help the University to effectively manage its car parks and provide university staff and visitors with the necessary guidance and information they need to park safely and efficiently”. Swarco Traffic will supply an initial 42 parking guidance signs to display par
    Read More

Highlighted Content