Driving Innovation
We are always trying out new ideas and better ways of doing things so that we don’t just respond to changes, we move proactively as the transport network evolves; meeting the challenges of the future head on. Challenges like, driverless vehicles, advances in technology and automation, greater connectedness and data exchange between physical objects and the internet that will impact upon how temporary traffic management looks in the future.
Areas of innovation
Innovation allows us to embed efficiency and effectiveness across the board. Here are examples of some of our most agile and progressive innovations:
We managed a weekend possession of the A1081 and Luton Airport to facilitate the safe transportation and siting of a prefabricated bridge on the Luton airport rail link. This project required numerous collaborative design meetings to consider the carriageway constraints via a Swept Path Analysis (SPA). This helped us to design traffic management to accommodate the needs of the 1,000-foot bridge during its 500-metre journey down the A1081 by allowing us to simulate the move in a digital environment.
We used our logistically trained, traffic management experts to coordinate the possession, ensure the movements of the bridge were in line with the temporary route, and guide local traffic away from the site. The move took two-hours and the bridge was finally opened nearly 29 hours ahead of schedule as a result of the successful collaborative planning.
We collaborated with highway specialists to support the creation of a virtual reality drive through of the M20 Project Brock. The virtual reality video was created by converting 2D AutoCAD designs into a 3D model which was then rendered and run through software to create a video drive through from the perspective of the road user. The video was presented to Parliament in order to demonstrate how the scheme mitigated the impact of Brexit on the Strategic Road Network.
The video enabled designers, contractors, customers and clients alike to put themselves into the role of the road user experiencing the roadworks supporting better collaboration through empathy and understanding.
The video was also played at strategic locations such as Ports in order to inform road users of the traffic management in place, allowing better journey planning. The simple drive through format promoted universal understanding in these multi-lingual environments.
