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

  • Automating seat belt compliance a priority for road safety
    February 2, 2012
    Finland's VTT is developing a mobile, automated seatbelt compliance system. Here, the organisation's Matti Kutila discusses progress
    Read More
  • IRD to deliver Georgia weigh station project
    January 6, 2015
    In a US$8 million contract, International Road Dynamics (IRD) will provide the design, supply, installation and integration of 19 mainline weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems at various locations throughout the state of Georgia in the US. The contract includes mainline WIM scales on the interstate, roadside and scale house electronics, licence plate reading (LPR), USDOT number reading and side view cameras and over-height detection systems at a total of 19 weigh station locations. The systems to be provided w
    Read More
  • TRL wins eighth prestigious international road safety award
    December 15, 2015
    The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has received its eighth Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for its work in improving road worker safety. The Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards recognise achievements in road safety and are presented to the most outstanding road safety initiatives across the world. TRL won the prestigious award for its research underpinning off side signs removal (OSSR), a signing technique for road works which has enabled elimination of live carriage
    Read More
  • Manchester to enforce city bus lanes
    July 3, 2013
    Siemens has been awarded a contract by Manchester City Council to supply unattended bus lane enforcement cameras for sites across the city, to enable the Council to identify unauthorised vehicles using the lanes restricted for the unhindered flow of buses, capture the event and prepare an evidential record to support the issue of an enforcement notice. The cameras are re-deployable and will be moved around a number of locations to provide maximum coverage. Working with UK bus lane enforcement equipment supp
    Read More

Highlighted Content