The Department for Transport is seeking market insight into options for creating, acquiring, licensing or stewarding a nationally consistent digital representation of England’s road network.
According to Find a Tender, the purpose of this RFI is to understand what data already exists, what could be collected or derived, what commercial and ownership models are available, and the likely costs, benefits and risks of different approaches. Suppliers are invited to respond on feasibility, existing work, commercial models, ownership and licensing, indicative cost drivers, standards, data quality, delivery timescales and wider innovation opportunities.
The initial driver for this work is the need to establish a reliable baseline for traffic restrictions and regulations across England. Traffic Regulation Orders are the local rules of the road, containing important information about things like yellow lines, parking rules and timings and speed limits. We’re also looking at expanding the service beyond what is contained in an order to allow people to record information about things like yellow box junctions and bridge heights.
New TROs will increasingly be created and supplied digitally through D-TRO. However, a significant historic backlog of existing restrictions remains held by traffic authorities in a range of formats, including paper records, legacy systems, scanned documents and locally managed datasets.
The tender document says that this is not a call for competition and there is no commitment. Any costs associated with producing a response to this RFI must be borne by the supplier. This RFI cannot be used as a down-selection. Responses must be made in good faith. Information provided through this RFI is indicative, subject to change and non-binding. DfT reserves the right not to proceed with any procurement as a result of this engagement.
The estimated contract dates run from 11 January 2027 to 22 December 2028 and more details can be found HERE.
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