A2M2 connected corridor
Costain will supply roadside technology using data provided by TfL, Highways England and Kent County Council. Credit: Costain Group PLC.

British smart infrastructure solutions firm Costain has won a technology contract from Highways England to design, install and implement a pilot connected vehicle corridor on a live road in the country.

Costain will work on the project in collaboration with the UK Department for Transport, Transport for London (TfL) and Kent County Council.

Costain will supply roadside technology on the A2M2 connected corridor using data provided by TfL, Highways England and Kent County Council.

Additionally, the company will provide a technology testbed for Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS).

The company will carry out work under the contract with core partners, Mott MacDonald, 4way Consulting, TRL, Kapsch TrafficCom, Altran, Cohda Wireless, Telent Technology Services and Telefonica.

“Vehicles will obtain information pertaining to roadworks, temporary speed limits, road conditions and the time remaining before a traffic light turns to green.”

Highways England safety, engineering and standards executive director Mike Wilson said: “Having the technology in place to allow vehicles to connect to each other and the road around them has the potential to improve journeys, making them safer and more reliable by providing real-time, personalised information directly to the driver. It could also help us manage traffic and respond to incidents.

“The A2M2 trial will test and demonstrate how this may work in the real world. We are delighted to be jointly funding and part of this international project.”

Within the A2M2 connected corridor contract, Costain will trial the wireless transmission of data to and from travelling vehicles.

Trial vehicles will be equipped with on-board technology that will communicate with roadside units through ITS G5 wireless communication and with the service provider through cellular communication.

Vehicles will obtain information pertaining to roadworks, temporary speed limits, road conditions and the time remaining before a traffic light turns to green.

Data gathered from the contract will be used to develop connected vehicle standards and support a widescale deployment of connected vehicle technology.

Earlier, Costain won a contract from Highways England to supply Motorway Incident Detection and Automated Signalling (MIDAS) technology systems to help improve road user safety.