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

  • IRD awarded Caltrans WIM maintenance deal
    June 27, 2014
    International Road Dynamics (IRD) is to provide the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) with equipment maintenance, software maintenance, and on-call service for their state-wide network of weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems at approximately 250 locations across the state. This new service agreement has a total value of US$4.7 million and provides for the maintenance of both Caltrans' commercial vehicle enforcement systems and traffic data collection systems from for the next three years.
    Read More
  • Q-Free unveils device manager for traffic signal controllers
    August 27, 2019
    Q-Free has unveiled a product which it says could save agencies tens of thousands of dollars when they upgrade signalised intersections. The Intelight Device Manager allows transportation agencies to remotely schedule firmware updates in bulk without putting an intersection into flashing red mode, the company says. Traditionally, technicians travel to each intersection and perform the update by putting the intersection in flash, a potentially hazardous scenario for technicians and motorists. The n
    Read More
  • How on-board video systems can increase vehicle & road safety
    January 7, 2022
    Hikvision examines technology which can avert danger in cars, school buses, taxis and trucks
    Read More
  • IRD wins major tolling contract in India
    June 11, 2012
    International Road Dynamics (IRD) has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, International Road Dynamics South Asia (IRDSA), has been awarded a major contract from Reliance Infrastructure in India valued at over US$1.66 million. The contract award for the prestigious Gurgaon Faridabad expressway in the state of Haryana in India spans over 50 lanes across four toll plazas, and includes 12 lanes of electronic toll collection using radio frequency identification readers and transponders as well as four st
    Read More

Highlighted Content