Work starts on UK’s first ‘connected corridor’

Highways England has awarded Costain a contract to design, install and implement one of the UK’s first pilot connected vehicle corridors on a live road.

Costain will work in collaboration with HE, the Department for Transport, Transport for London and Kent County Council on the contract, known as the A2M2 connected corridor.

It will deliver roadside technology using data supplied by TfL, Highways England and Kent County Council and a technology test bed for Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems.

It will be testing the wireless transmission of data to and from travelling vehicles. Trial vehicles will be fitted with on-board technology that will communicate with roadside units via ITS G5 wireless communication and with the service provider via cellular communication.

This will convey information to the vehicle relating to road works, road conditions, temporary speed limits and the time remaining before a traffic light turns to green. This information could then be used by the vehicle to vary speed, for example. Information from the contract will be used to develop connected vehicle standards and facilitate a wide scale deployment of connected vehicle technology.

Mike Wilson, safety, engineering and standards executive director at Highways England, said:, “Having the technology in place to allow vehicles to connect to each other and the road around them has the potential to improve journeys, making them safer and more reliable by providing real-time, personalised information directly to the driver. It could also help us manage traffic and respond to incidents.”