The Mott MacDonald Sweco joint venture (MMS JV) has been appointed by Highways England to develop the design elements of two smart motorways between junctions 4-11 of the M27 and junctions 9-14 of the M3, in the south of England.
Highways England’s national smart motorways programme is aimed at increasing capacity and reducing congestion on 470km of its busiest motorway network by converting the existing hard shoulders into extra running lanes and introducing emergency refuge areas. Additional new technology will be introduced to control vehicle speeds, manage congestion and assist incident management.
MMS JV will design a range of innovative technology solutions, including message signs and signals, CCTV, vehicle detection and variable mandatory speed limit enforcement cameras. WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff has been engaged on the scheme, which is expected to take five years to complete, to support its delivery.
Commenting on the appointment, MMS JV contract director John Owens said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Highways England to deliver this phase of its smart motorways plan as part of its collaborative delivery framework. Being awarded this latest smart motorways project is testament to the expertise of our transportation team and the quality of our service delivery.”
The MMS JV was established in 2010, bringing together Mott MacDonald’s and Sweco’s broad cross-sector experience of delivering major infrastructure programmes. It successfully supports Highways England on several road improvement schemes as part of the project support and collaborative delivery frameworks and is also part of Transport Scotland’s multiple framework agreement for engineering and transportation consultancy services.
Projects the JV has been involved in include improvement works around junction 10 of the M20 motorway in Kent, the introduction of smart motorway on the M5 in the Midlands and the A160/A180 Port of Immingham improvement scheme in Grimsby. In 2016 the MMS JV was appointed by Transport Scotland to upgrade the A96 Hardmuir to Fochabers between Inverness and Aberdeen.