National Highways’ Chief Executive Nick Joyce has agreed the organisation must be prepared to share the risks of testing new technology, warning that successful innovation means accepting some ideas will not work.

Speaking to the Highways Voices podcast at Highways UK after his keynote address at Highways UK, Mr Joyce expanded on his call for the sector to be bolder and his announcement of up to £1 million in innovation funding to improve roadworker safety.

Podcasts from Highways UK are sponsored by AGD Systems, Arcadis, Nicander, SWARCO and Westcotec.

Asked how the industry can overcome barriers to getting innovation onto the network, he said National Highways must find suitable opportunities to test ideas and “recognise that we’re going to be taking some risk and it’s not all on the supply chain”.

He added: “Do that in a controlled and sensible way, but I think we can really lean into that as we go forward.”

Mr Joyce said reducing and ultimately eliminating roadworkers’ exposure to risk must be the top research and development priority, through technology, different working methods, materials and products.

Explaining his safety challenge to the industry, he said: “If they all work, then we haven’t been bold enough, and we haven’t tried enough innovation.”

He also identified better real-time information for road users as a priority, helping people plan journeys and respond to incidents as the ways they access information change.

Looking ahead through the third Road Investment Strategy period, Mr Joyce highlighted the challenge of delivering around £8.4 billion of renewals across ageing assets while avoiding additional delays.

“That’s a lot to spend,” he said. “That’s to spend wisely across a complex, aged set of assets. And doing that without increasing delay for the road user during the period, that’s going to be tough.”

You can hear the full interview on Thursday’s Highways Voices, which is published in the early afternoon.

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