New roads, new rules: Making the ‘unaffordable’ affordable

In an age of new roads, be they smart motorways, expressways or digital highways, leading public sector bodies and companies are writing new rules and making the seemingly impossible achievable - one such group is Kier.

For instance delivering information to road users on technology-barren areas of the strategic road network has previously been cost prohibitive due the expense of installing power and communications networks.

However Kier, via the use of Renewable Energy Ecological Points-of-Presence (EcoPoP), is providing power in locations without energy cables.

By utilising renewable solutions that can generate power within these types of environments, Kier is able to deploy intelligent sensors, traffic management, journey time monitoring, and high-definition video solutions across the network.

Simon Waterfall, technology innovation lead at Kier, said: 'With the release of the Government’s industrial strategy, it is time for the construction industry to come together and be faster, greener and leaner by 2025. As a result, we need to invest in a new way of thinking when we design, build and operate on these technology blackspots of the network.

'This project also aims to develop these smart sensors and traffic management technologies enabling reduced power consumption from each intelligent asset. This provides overall smart renewable low power infrastructure with a mechanism to energise more assets, and maintain a communications architecture to create a connected car infrastructure.'