Highways England awards contract to Mott MacDonald

Mott MacDonald has been awarded a £2.5 million contract by Highways England to keep up an intelligent communications network and remote access services. The engineering consultancy will deliver the programme in collaboration with sub-contractors Simulation Systems.

Highways England, formally the Highways Agency, is a UK government company whose function is operating the A class highways of England. The roads the company operates represent only 2% of England’s roads by length, however, they carry a third of all traffic by mileage - and two thirds of all heavy goods traffic, thereby making them of high strategic value. The company is charged with maintaining and modernising the highway network, as well as dealing with incidents on England’s motorways through a Traffic Officer Service. Highways England has 3,500 staff based in 7 offices in the UK.

As part of Highways England’s aim to engage with the latest technologies in its wide activities around improving safety and exploring greener modes of transport, the department recently developed the Commercial Service’s RM869 traffic management technology framework. This framework allows it to procure a range of services around traffic technology needs for an intelligent network of major roads that are open to all.

In its latest procurement agreement within the RM869 framework, Highways England has hired Mott MacDonald to manage the TMT054 Technology Software Systems (TSS) contract. In delivering the £2.5 million deal, the engineering consulting firm will work together with sub-contractors Simulation Systems, the firm’s previous partner in the successfully executed TMT016 TSS contract.

Under the new TSS contract the partners will provide support to Highways England in its goals for its TMS, which will involve keeping an intelligent communications network and remote access services, as well as acquiring data from sites to regional control centres – allowing Highways England to realise ever more consistent data designs for new projects.

Nabil Abou-Rahme, Mott MacDonald’s transport technology services director, says: “Our appointment on this contract is testament to our flexible resource management approach, utilising our technology expertise, a collaborative approach with Simulation Systems and delivering value for money for our clients. We are pleased to continue supporting Highways England in improving and maintaining availability, performance and security requirements for its traffic management systems.”