Active Traffic Management

 

The Highways Agency commissioned us to provide an assessment of the need to implement Dynamic use of the Hard Shoulder along the M5 between junction 2 to 4a. The aim of the study was to identify possible improvements to the M5 by adding additional capacity utilising managed motorway techniques as an alternative to conventional motorway widening. This involves Active Traffic Management, meaning the traffic flows are constantly monitored and as congestion reaches a critical point, action will be taken to increase capacity, in this case by opening the hard shoulder to traffic and enforcing a reduced speed limit.

Each stretch of motorway has its own characteristics such as the width of the existing carriageway, surrounding land use and number of bridges. To provide accurate cost-benefit analyses required close collaboration between our highways design, structures design, geotechnical design, environmental assessment, traffic and economics teams. Each team undertook assessments, these were then brought together in order to understand the impacts and benefits of the scheme as a whole.

Compared with road widening, Active Traffic Management is significantly more cost effective. Research also points to the fact that, overall, it will also have a lower impact on the environment than road widening.