Vehicle to improve safety and reduce disruption on motorways

A new maintenance assistance vehicle (MAV) developed by Highways England and Mott MacDonald to help replace overhead signs was inspired by an aircraft catering vehicle and is set to reduce the duration of roadworks.
September 16, 2016 Read time: 1 min

A new maintenance assistance vehicle (MAV) developed by 8101 Highways England and 1869 Mott MacDonald to help replace overhead signs was inspired by an aircraft catering vehicle and is set to reduce the duration of roadworks.

Traditionally, signs are mounted and removed using a flat-bed truck, crane and access platform – a process that can take up to 40 minutes. However with the MAV’s hydraulically elevating body, this can be achieved in around 20 to 25 minutes by using a small jib crane which is mounted on the vehicle itself.

Once elevated to the correct height, the jib crane lifts the detached sign off the gantry and the operatives use a trolley to move it into the truck’s main body. This procedure is reversed when installing a new signs.

The hydraulically powered scissor lift enables the signs at heights of up to 8.5m to be serviced in wind speeds of up to 47mph, while its CCTV cameras enable the driver to correctly position the vehicle below the gantry before maintenance and monitor the operatives while they work.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Free-flow tolling needs classification technology rethink
    February 2, 2012
    The move to all-electronic fee collection should be encouraging tolling authorities to look again at whether their vehicle classification criteria and technologies remain at all appropriate. Bob Lees of Idris Technology writes
    Read More
  • Cepton and Belam boost railway safety
    September 28, 2021
    Cepton says the system has achieved an accuracy of over 99.9% in obstacle detection
    Read More
  • Battery vehicle ‘now viable for very long distances’
    June 23, 2016
    The Tesla 3 gets nearly double the range of the Nissan Leaf by using nearly double the amount of battery but engineers are using a multitude of work rounds to do better: aerodynamics, light-weighting even including structural electronics where dumb structure is replaced by supercapacitors or solid state batteries. Add more efficient motors and powertrain, says Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx Research in its report Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles on Land 2016-2026. He goes on to say that
    Read More
  • Meeting the challenges of smartcard fare payment
    July 4, 2012
    David Crawford monitors a growing trend in contactless smartcard ticketing The north east United States has become a hive of activity in the smart fare payment arena. In October 2011, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) published, as a preliminary to an imminent procurement process, the detailed concept of its New Fare Payment System (NFPS). Based on open payment industry standards, this is designed to be implemented on all MTA bus and subway services operated by New York City Transit (
    Read More

Highlighted Content