Leyton Cross
Highways England is requesting innovative ideas to create future road and mobility solutions. Credit: Stephen Craven.

Highways England is set to introduce an initiative aimed at encouraging companies to share ideas relating to the design, construction and maintenance of future roads.

The £20m competition is expected to open from 11 February with closing of registration on 1 May. Phase 1 contracts will be awarded on 2 August, with all Phase 2 agreements issued by 2 December.

Companies have been urged to share their plans regarding design, construction and maintenance of the particular types of road, from all-purpose trunk highways to motorways. This is in addition to concepts for types of road use such as public transport and freight.

The initiative is also seeking ideas about connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), customer mobility, energy and environment, operations and air quality.

Under the CAVs theme, participating firms should provide information on how to support connected cars, operations of a mixed fleet, and ways to optimise the capacity and safety benefits.

“The fifth theme seeks ideas related to customer service, traffic management, roadworks, and incident and severe weather conditions response.”

The third theme, named customer mobility, will focus on positive customer experience in motorways service areas and how to connect different modes of transport and enable smooth onward journeys.

The fourth theme is energy and environment. It will incorporate information on ways to reduce the operational impact on nearby residents and the environment, and make operations sustainable.

The fifth theme is called operations. It seeks ideas related to customer service, traffic management, roadworks, and incident and severe weather conditions response.

The last theme is air quality, which will focus on reducing emissions of oxides of nitrogen pollution, using methods targeted at other air pollutants and ensuring lower pollution concentrations.

Through the new ideas, Highways England hopes to improve the resilience and ease of design, construction and maintenance of its assets over the next 30 years and beyond.