Vehicles and the roads will soon be able to ‘talk’ to each other, as Costain, the smart infrastructure solutions company, provides the technology to power pioneering work led by Highways England to transform journeys with innovative technology.

A high-tech ‘corridor’ is being created on the A2/M2 in Kent to let specially-equipped test vehicles interact with roadside infrastructure in a move which promises safer, more reliable journeys and speedier maintenance, to reduce delays. Displaying the information on screens inside vehicles reduces the likelihood of drivers missing information displayed on roadside signs, ending the problem of obscured signs caused by vegetation or when passing other vehicles.

“This is an important step in making our roads safer and improving journey time reliability by embracing cutting edge technology. The technology advances achieved in such a short space of time truly demonstrate the power of collaboration,” said Simon Ellison, Group technology capability director.

A week-long event had been staged by Highways England, the Department for Transport, Kent County Council and Transport for London, which attracted more than 60 people from the automobile world to allow them to understand the technology and see how it could be used in the construction of future vehicle designs.

The new and leading-edge intelligent system was created by Costain in order to allow a digital conversation to take place between the roadside infrastructure and the car and vice versa. During the tests, information was communicated to the vehicle relating to road works, road conditions, temporary speed limits and the time remaining before a traffic light turns to green.

Costain has brought together industry leading technology partners from across Europe and delivered an integrated end-to-end hybrid system and this has been exhaustively tested by a wide range of organisations at the test event.

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