New weather stations to help get England’s motorways and A-roads ready for winter
With winter approaching, National Highways is investing £15.4m in new state-of-the-art network of weather stations, including supporting infrastructure, that will provide real-time data of road conditions. As the clocks go back this weekend, the organisation is ready for the winter season with more than 530 gritters to call upon in adverse conditions and around 280,000 […]
National Highways consults on Coventry junction plans
National Highways is calling on members of the public to have their say on plans to upgrade the A46 Walsgrave junction in Coventry. A public consultation period runs until Wednesday, 6 December. People are invited to comment on the plans for a multi-million-pound scheme that will provide smoother journeys through a well-known bottleneck. The new […]
Harris talks of rebuilding, not roadbuilding
The Chief Executive of National Highways has told a packed auditorium at Highways UK that there will be no announcement of new roads in the next Road Investment Strategy, RIS3, and that this is now a time for “rebuilding, not road building,” to help our country to grow. In his keynote address at the major […]
Excellence award for inspirational females driving forward major motorway upgrade
A female team leading a multi-million motorway improvement scheme and paving the way for generations of women and girls to become future leaders of the construction industry, has won an award at the Construction News and New Civil Engineer Inspiring Women in Construction and Engineering Award for Excellence in Leadership. The project team was crowned in […]
ORR updates on National Highways’ safety KPI
Latest figures from the Department for Transport show that 1,944 people were killed or seriously injured on the Strategic Road Network in 2022. This is 38% lower than the 2005-2009 average baseline but means that National Highways must deliver a further improvement of 12 percentage points (376 KSIs) to achieve its target of a 50% […]
ORR report shows England’s best and worst regions for motorway and A-road surface condition
A new report from the Office of Rail and Road shows that the condition of road surfaces in National Highways’ East region – covering Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Essex and Bedfordshire, is consistently lower than in the rest of England. The South West region, covering Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Wiltshire, consistently performs the best. ORR’s Benchmarking Road Surface […]
National Highways switches to winter operations
National Highways has officially switches to autumn and winter operations, with meteorological experts from the Met Office and MetDesk closely monitoring weather forecasts “and are prepared for whatever conditions the autumn and winter season may bring”. The Government-owned company says that, based on current weather forecasts, you are unlikely to see gritters spreading salt on […]
Four miles of vertical abseils ensure Orwell Bridge remains sound
UK specialist access company Up and Under has abseiled the equivalent vertical distance of four miles at Ipswich’s Orwell Bridge as part of an inspection project which took place across day and night shifts to complete vital inspection work while avoiding disruption to motorists and pedestrians. The bridge, built in 1982, carries the dual two-lane A14 […]
Early work to begin on A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements
Early preparation work is set to begin next week on National Highways’ A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements, designed to improve journeys between Milton Keynes, Bedford, St Neots, and Cambridge. To facilitate early construction activities, overnight closures during the week are scheduled on the A421 between between the Black Cat roundabout and Renhold junction […]
Former Somerset rail bridge to become active travel route
A disused railway bridge that has become a notorious fly-tipping spot could soon become an active travel route under new plans. Stump Cross Bridge carries Ridge Road in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, over the disused Cheddar Valley railway line, which was closed in 1963, reports the BBC. The bridge had fallen into disrepair and become a […]