SSL wins Highways England traffic signal contract

Simulation Systems Limited (SSL) has been awarded a contract to deliver a new central traffic signal control and management system for Highways England in the south east.

Central to the contract will be Siemens Stratos – designed to be the UK’s first cloud-hosted, fully integrated traffic control and management solution; and Hosted- SCOOT – the highly successful real time UTC and adaptive traffic control system already used to manage and co-ordinate traffic control for 76 UK authorities, including the control of many existing Highways England junctions.

The Siemens Stratos system will replace the existing UTC control system for the M25 and bring the control of sites in central southern England and the south east under the control of the new system, which additionally offers expansion capacity for the other regional areas.

The development roadmap will deliver a new traffic signals module to Highways England from April 2016. This module when linked to the latest generation of IP outstations will offer the functionality previously offered by the two separate systems on a single platform. This provides Highways England with a single hosted solution for both real time control and monitoring. This hosted system will be accessed through secure internet based connections providing the flexibility to operate the system from many locations by many operators.

SSL managing director Louis Thompson said: “We are delighted to be awarded this prestigious contract that will provide Highways England with a future proofed solution with capacity and the potential to expand the service around the country.’

SSL will begin the roll-out of the Stratos equipment into the regions in the coming months.