WJ Group says that its new intelligent monitoring solution will ‘transform incident response on the UK’s road network’, providing real-time situational awareness in areas where traditional CCTV isn’t feasible.
WJ Group’s patent-pending Active Vehicle Event Recognition Alerts (AVERA) system is designed to help highways teams identify potential incidents sooner and maintain visibility in locations where installing CCTV is either physically or commercially impractical, such as narrow verges or short-duration traffic management schemes.
AVERA draws on multiple data sources and applies agreed confidence thresholds to highlight potential issues, including stopped vehicles, sending alerts to WJ’s control room. This allows operators to make fast, informed decisions and assign resources efficiently.
Christopher D Hayball FIHE, Construction Manager, National Highways (Midlands) said:
“AVERA proved ideally suited to the A52 Queens Medical Centre to Priory Island scheme, where limited space prevented the installation of CCTV. The system demonstrated impressive accuracy, quickly identifying and pinpointing the exact location of a broken-down vehicle.
“This helped ensure that National Highways customers and recovery operatives returned home safe and well, while reducing disruption to road users and enabling our contractors to continue delivering the works safely and efficiently”.
Alerts are presented through a live alert board and scheme overview, giving operators a clear view of live and recent activity and supporting faster assessment and escalation, helping to improve safety for road users and workers alike.
The system is also designed to complement existing CCTV and radar-based monitoring by filling coverage gaps and providing additional visibility where fixed infrastructure is not practical.
Early trials have demonstrated the potential of AVERA to improve incident response and provide insight across wider road networks. During a month-long trial on the M4 J37/38 temporary works, AVERA identified 73 incidents, with recovery times estimated to be 20% shorter on average and some incidents cleared up to 40%
faster.
On the A47 Tuddenham project, AVERA was also used to monitor a 58-mile diversion route during two full weekend closures, providing insight into journey times, delays, speeds and incident hotspots.
Additionally, the web-based portal provides scheme maps, historical information, analytics and downloadable incident summaries for reporting and review. Subject to the scheme information and monitoring requirements being agreed, AVERA can be configured rapidly, without the civil works associated with a fixed camera installation.
Tom Howarth, Head of WJ Sunstone, said:
“We developed AVERA to address a real challenge across the UK’s road network, how to maintain full monitoring coverage in areas where camera installation isn’t viable.
“By using intelligent data collection and cloud-based analytics, we’re giving clients the visibility they need to improve safety, without the cost or complexity of physical infrastructure.”
(Picture: WJ Group)
