Skip to main content

Mott MacDonald designed M2M metering scheme begins testing

Mott MacDonald (MM) has designed a Highways England scheme to smooth traffic flows, reduce queues and to combat eastbound congestion on the M62's junction 10 and 11 as well as traffic joining the motorway from the M6 northbound and southbound link roads. The project will operate during 2018 and be monitored to evaluate the benefits. Called The Motorway to Motorway (M2M) metering pilot scheme, it combines variable mandatory speed limits on the M62 and metering using traffic signals between the M6 to M62
December 20, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

1869 Mott MacDonald (MM) has designed a Highways England scheme to smooth traffic flows, reduce queues and to combat eastbound congestion on the M62's junction 10 and 11 as well as traffic joining the motorway from the M6 northbound and southbound link roads. The project will operate during 2018 and be monitored to evaluate the benefits.

Called The Motorway to Motorway (M2M) metering pilot scheme, it combines variable mandatory speed limits on the M62 and metering using traffic signals between the M6 to M62 eastbound to make best use of the available road capacity. These are set to respond to prevailing traffic conditions, with information displayed on overhead gantries, using advanced motorway indicators and variable message signs. MM has developed algorithms to coordinate the separate systems. Where no mandatory speed restriction is displayed the national speed limit will apply.

Stuart Scott, MM, project principal, said: “Highways England is committed to building upon the success of its existing smart motorway programme. The M2M scheme increases the resilience of the overall network, with the benefit to the road user of smoother traffic flows, improved journey times and increased quality of information provided.”

“By utilising the latest technologies and making use of the existing capacity of the link roads, the M2M scheme is a lower cost solution than conventional widening programmes. Additionally, it does not require additional road-space, leading to a low environmental impact during construction while delivering a positive impact during operation,” Scott added.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Traffic signals turn red to stop speeding drivers
    March 15, 2012
    David Crawford is encouraged by the spread of 'soft' speed policing 
  • Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    October 29, 2015
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.
  • Improving traffic flow with automated urban traffic control
    April 25, 2012
    Alterations to traffic signals and variable message signs are being activated to reduce congestion as soon as it occurs, through a pioneering fully automatic UTC system. Jon Masters reports In the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley in England, strategies for dealing with traffic congestion have been devised from analysis of queue data, then made to work automatically: “This represents the future of ITS for urban traffic control,” says Siemens Consultancy Services senior engineer David Carr. Over a career span
  • Ramp metering delivers - again
    January 27, 2012
    Though still controversial, ramp metering, which has been around for nearly 50 years, continues to deliver substantial benefits, and generally for relatively small cost. Kansas City is a case in point. In March 2010, Kansas City Scout, a partnership between the Missouri and Kansas Departments of Transportation to provide ITS for the greater Kansas City Area, activated the first ramp metering system in the region. The project is located on an 8.85km (5.5 mile) section of Interstate 435 from Metcalf Avenue to