Funding for new technology that could help stop potholes from forming has been announced by the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.
The government will provide £22.9 million for research and trials on new surface materials or pothole repair.
Real-world tests of new road surfaces and technologies in eight local authorities will see which emerging innovations provide long-term solutions. The Live Labs projects will be delivered by councils — including Kent, Staffordshire, Reading, Suffolk and Solihull and Birmingham — and if successful, could be adopted by other authorities.
These schemes include expanding the test of plastic roads in Cumbria, using kinetic energy off Buckinghamshire roads to power lighting and using geothermal energy created from paths to keep car parks and bus stations in Central Bedfordshire from freezing over.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said:
Potholes are the number one enemy for road users and this government is looking at numerous ways to keep our roads in the best condition.
Today's trials will see how new technologies work in the real world to ensure our roads are built for the 21st century.
In the Budget in November, the Chancellor announced an additional £420 million for road maintenance for 2018 to 2019 financial year. This brings the total funding for pothole repair and roads maintenance, including the Live Labs project, from 2015 to 2020 up to £6.6 billion.
| Buckinghamshire | Ringway Jacobs (Contractors), Transport Systems Catapult, Aylesbury Garden Town, Aylesbury Vale Council, Coldharbour Parish Council, Bucks and Thames Valley LEP and Enlight | The council would work with Transport Catapult Systems and an innovative partner to manufacture recycled plastic/composite columns to mount lighting sensors, 5G antenna and large format schemes in public areas. They will also use sensors to collect data across their highway network including the use of a central management data system to collect data on air quality, road surface temperature, ANPR, CCTV. They will also include the application of gulley sensors at various locations to help improve efficiency in highways maintenance service. In addition they will use new kinetic energy recovery from the carriageway to harvest energy in roadside battery units. The Live Lab will also introduce new solar energy generation including solar roads and footways. The bid includes a new turbine to help harvest energy to power street furniture using the wind. It will also include on-street charging points, a new e-bike hire scheme and a trial at Aylesbury of autonomous pods. | £4.49 million |
| Central Bedfordshire | Ringway Jacobs (Contractors), Morgan Sindall, Jacobs and Vinci | The bid would test solar power in a number of footways to create and store energy. The bid also would install a surface course in Flitwick town centre using solar or kinetic power capability. They would include a "Power Road" solution, already piloted successfully in France, to use geothermal energy connected to water pipes laid just below the surface to de-ice car parks/bus stations in sub-zero weather conditions. | £1.05 million |
| Cumbria | University of Nottingham, University of Central Lancashire, University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia), University of California (USA), MacRebur Ltd and Gaist | To extend Cumbria's existing trial of the use of plastic roads. The trial will also would produce a guidance document on the use of this new surface material solution and also an APP. | £1.6 million |
| Staffordshire | Amey (Contractor), Keele University and UI | This project addresses the issue of how the concept of a Smart Highways network can be extended from primary roads to a local road network. The project will be developed around the private road network on the "small town" living laboratory of the Keele University campus. The project will develop, test and demonstrate how such a network can be enabled to retrofit Smart Highway design, construction and maintenance to support the use of alternative approaches to both people and freight transport. A control centre to function as an asset and data manager will be integrated with sensor and control technologies. The living laboratory will be adjacent to a proposed public transport hub to enable rapid roll-out of development The Highways and AV living laboratory base at Keele University will focus on the development, testing and demonstration of Smart infrastructure and its interaction with new service propositions, CAVs and people and alternative fuels with a particular focus on rural and small community roads. The objective will be to develop new approaches to: instances of congestion and incidents; improved user / customer experience / perceptions and health; improved real-time network understanding (assets and their use); improved citizen engagement; optimisation of network assets and whole system performance and improved air quality through the development of carbon reduction approaches. To deliver these objectives the project will establish a new control centre to act as an asset manager and data broker between different services and provide the platform to which new technology can be tested, as far as possible in a plug and play approach. This will be integrated with the deployment of a number of different sensors across the Keele Campus road and energy network to establish what is required for a minimum viable product. | £3.95 million |
| Kent | Amey (contractor), University of Birmingham, MAP16, UI and Rezatec | The bid would be for a local highway asset management technology incubator and would create a centralised digital hub for all asset management data. This would link to dynamic network sensors which are linked to assets such as drainage, winter service (gritters) and gulleys. It should lead to more efficient highways maintenance service and allow funding to go further. | |
| Reading | Siemens, University of Reading, |
