Technology-based engineering services company Costain has been awarded a contract by Highways England (HE) to work in collaboration with them, the Department for Transport (DfT), Transport for London (TfL) and Kent County Council (KCC) to design, install and implement one of the UK’s first pilot connected vehicle corridors on a live road.
Under the contract for the A2M2 Connected Corridor project, Costain will deliver roadside technology using data supplied by TfL, HE and KCC, to create a technology testbed for Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS). The flagship contract will help to promote the UK as market leader in connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) and C-ITS technology. Costain will deliver this contract with core partners, Mott MacDonald, 4way Consulting, TRL, Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Altran, Cohda Wireless, Telent Technology Services Ltd, and Telefonica. Part of the wider European InterCor (Interoperable Corridors) project, the scheme aims to create a Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) connected testbed on the route that runs from the Blackwall Tunnel in London to the port of Dover on the A2 trunk road and M2 motorway.
Within the A2M2 connected corridor contract, Costain will be testing the wireless transmission of data to and from traveling vehicles. Trial vehicles will be fitted with onboard technology (OBU) that will communicate with roadside units (RSU) 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 using SPaT (Signal Phase and Timing) data. This information could then be used by the vehicle to vary speed using Green Light Optimization Speed Assistance (GLOSA). Information from the contract will be used to develop connected vehicle standards and facilitate a widescale deployment of connected vehicle technology.
The contract win follows the announcement of the Costain Group’s contract with HE to supply Motorway Incident Detection and Automated Signaling (MIDAS) technology systems to help improve road user safety on the country’s road network, and also builds on the recent announcement of the company’s key role supplying smart autonomous vehicle monitoring technology for the Midlands Future Mobility testbed.
“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, personalized information directly to the driver,” said Mike Wilson, safety, engineering and standards executive director at HE. “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.”
Andrew Wyllie, Costain’s chief executive, commented, “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 our capability and we look forward to leading the way with the deployment and testing of this exciting technology.”
