Highways England partners with Advanced in US$8.6m IT services deal

Highways England has chosen Advanced as its IT partner in a deal worth £6.7m (US$8.6m). The four-year contract will start immediately and will host important IT infrastructure to enable the delivery of smart and sustainable highway technology to English motorways and A roads over the coming years.

Roy Wood, managing director for IT services at Advanced, said, “With around 40,000 devices connected to the Highways England road signs network and links to emergency services, this is a mission-critical operation which we absolutely thrive in managing.

"Helping Highways England to make a difference to the millions of drivers on British roads every day is an incredible accolade for our safe and secure approach to managed services. There was a good cultural fit between the two teams from the outset and everyone involved is looking forward to getting this major project underway.”

The government agency responsible for operating, maintaining and improving the nation’s strategic road network is also moving to a new advanced traffic management systems (ATMS) software solution which is provided by Kapsch.

A Highways England spokesperson said, “We are committed to safely keeping traffic moving and better informing our customers, key initiatives detailed in the strategic business plan published in April 2015.

“As Highways England’s technology partner, Advanced will provide mission-critical IT infrastructure hosting for the ATMS solution that adheres to stringent performance and availability targets.”