Skip to main content

ITS awards for highways technology company

Two projects which highways technology company Rennicks says could set the blueprint for a fresh approach to road safety have sparked a double celebration for the company. It has landed the title of Road Marking Project of the Year at the recent Highways Magazine Excellence Awards for a ground-breaking scheme in Scotland using solar-powered active road stud technology. And the company also clinched an ITS Ireland ITS Excellence award after providing the largest solar-powered variable message signs for t
October 31, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Two projects which highways technology company Rennicks says could set the blueprint for a fresh approach to road safety have sparked a double celebration for the company.

It has landed the title of Road Marking Project of the Year at the recent Highways Magazine Excellence Awards for a ground-breaking scheme in Scotland using solar-powered active road stud technology.  And the company also clinched an 7075 ITS Ireland ITS Excellence award after providing the largest solar-powered variable message signs for the inter-urban motorway network in Ireland.

The company’s SR-15 units use LED and solar technology to create delineation shown to be far more effective than traditional retroreflective road studs.  The studs made a big impact in Scotland, where a local authority became the first in the country to install the technology on a major route. Incidents on a stretch of the A719 in East Ayrshire are said to have been reduced by 100 per cent.

Road safety expert Alan Vass, of the Ayrshire Roads Alliance, said such dramatic results could prompt a new approach to highway markings across the country.

Rennicks won the ITS Ireland award after supplying the National Roads Authority with three 5.1 x 3.6m fixed solar-powered full matrix signs capable of remote communication and control. Solar technology enables the signs to be installed in rural areas where there is limited access to electricity supplies.

The signs, which deliver VMS capability in almost any location, were installed as part of a pilot project at strategic locations on the M7, M8 and M11 in Ireland.

Group managing director Michael Flanagan says the prestigious industry prizes are rich reward for the company’s intelligent approach. He said: “We are looking to make big strides in the world of intelligent traffic solutions (ITS) so these awards are a great boost to everyone involved. Intelligent thinking is at the core of our business and this success is a clear illustration that we’re on the right track.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Swarco scoops city centre signage contracts
    September 25, 2015
    Swarco Traffic has signed new contracts with three UK City Councils, Bradford, Durham and Coventry, to install a variety of full matrix and variable message signs (VMS) to manage and control vehicle flows within city centres. Bradford is using a mix of full matrix signs and traditional parking guidance signs; Durham is installing a first tranche of nine full matrix signs to provide driver information to drivers approaching the city; and Coventry has chosen various Swarco technologies to support new park
  • Siemens awarded TfL maintenance contracts
    August 27, 2014
    Siemens is to maintain traffic control equipment in the north and north-east London regions under two new traffic control maintenance services contracts awarded by Transport for London (TfL). The contracts represent two of the five contracts that will see London’s traffic signals upgraded to the latest energy-saving technology, as well as expanding the use of intelligent traffic signals and new crossings for pedestrians and cyclists. Worth in total around US$525 million for up to eight years, the five co
  • Awards for Scottish roundabout safety scheme
    April 6, 2017
    The Sheriffhall Roundabout: Mitigating Lane Transgression with the Intelligent Road Stud scheme was recently presented with two awards by ITS (UK). The Forward Thinking Award and UK Scheme of the Year Award follow earlier recognition by four other major industry awards during past year. Sheriffhall is a new approach to reducing lane transgression on a multi-lane spiral roundabout. Connecting several key roads around Edinburgh and handling upwards of 42,000 vehicles a day, the A720 Sheriffhall Roundabout
  • Scottish company produces motor fuel from whisky
    March 2, 2015
    A Scottish company has become the first in the world to produce biofuel capable of powering cars from residues of the whisky industry. Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables now plans to build a production facility in central Scotland after manufacturing the first samples of bio-butanol from the by-products of whisky fermentation. Celtic Renewables, in partnership with the Ghent-based BioBase Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP), has produced the first samples of bio-butanol from waste using a process called the acetone-b