National Highways will dedicate £1m of innovation funding to support innovations and ideas that can deliver a 'step change' in road worker safety.
Announced by interim chief executive Nick Joyce this week, the cash will be moved across from the national road operator's 'innovation funding'.
Mr Joyce said: 'I'm pleased to announce that we are going to be launching something called the "Chief Exec's Challenge" on reducing road worker risk exposure. So we're going to bring up to a million pounds of our innovation funding to bear in trying to seek out some great ways to make a step change in the environment in which road workers do their jobs.
'We'll be inviting innovators, suppliers, technology companies, SMEs, and industry partners to bring forward new ideas and solutions [to] fundamentally change how we protect people working on the roads. And it's more than about making what we do say a bit safer. It's about finding technologies, equipment, and ways of working that can enhance and eliminate exposure to risk for us. We want to create a clear route for innovative ideas to be tested, developed, and adopted at scale.
'Our ambition is really simple. It's to accelerate those innovations that can help [protect] road workers from harm and create a safer future for everyone. Because everyone who comes to work on our network deserves to go home safely at the end of each day.'
National Highways did not confirm any timeline for the initiative at this stage or what shape the process would take.
The move comes as the national operator recently reported more than 400 drivers deliberately entered closed-off roadwork areas between January - July this year, 'putting lives at risk'.
More than half of incursions now involve drivers trying to avoid queues, closures or diversions, up from 47% in 2020, National Highways said.
This unsafe driver behaviour has led to full motorway closures and significant delays for road users.
