The contract was awarded by Highways England, which is working in collaboration with the Department for Transport, Transport for London (TfL) and Kent County Council on the contract.
Costain is in partnership with Mott MacDonald, 4way Consulting, TRL, Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Altran, Cohda Wireless, Telent Technology Services and Telefonica.
Under the contract, known as the A2M2 connected corridor, Costain’s team will deliver roadside technology using data supplied by TfL, Highways England and Kent County Council and a technology testbed for cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS). The work is expected to help promote the UK as market leader in connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) and C-ITS technology.
Highways England 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 A2/M2 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 be testing the wireless transmission of data to and from travelling vehicles. Trial vehicles will be fitted with technology to communicate with roadside units via ITS G5 wireless communication and with the service provider via cellular communication. This will convey information to the vehicle relating to road works, road conditions, temporary speed limits and the time remaining before a traffic light turns to green, for example.
Costain chief executive Andrew Wyllie said: “This is an important step in making our roads safer and improving journey time reliability by embracing cutting edge technology. It is a further demonstration of Costain’s capability and we look forward to leading the way with the deployment and testing of this exciting technology.”
This contract win follows Costain’s contract with Highways England to supply motorway incident detection and automated signalling (MIDAS) systems and builds on the recent announcement of Costain’s role supplying smart autonomous vehicle monitoring technology for the Midlands Future Mobility testbed.
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