Scottish JV scoops road safety award

12.00 | 24 October 2017 | | 2 comments

The trunk road maintenance and management company Scotland TranServ has received a national road safety award for deploying a ‘smart’ vehicle activated sign system to help address a a problem with HGV collisions.

Scotland TranServ – in partnership with Transport Scotland, Clearview Intelligence and Coeval – picked up the Road Safety Scheme of the Year Award at the 2017 Highways Awards ceremony on 18 October.

The need for a VAS scheme on the A75 through Dumfries and Galloway was identified after detailed examination of 10-years of statistics highlighted a potential issue with a disproportionate number of HGV collisions on this stretch of road.

Scotland TranServ and Transport Scotland worked with Clearview Intelligence to develop the ‘smart’ signs, which identify a vehicle class and therefore its speed limit by its axle length.

The VAS receives this information via inductive traffic loops sunk in the carriageway approximately 100m from the sign in both approaches.

Stuart Wilson, Transport Scotland’s network operations manager, said: “Scotland has some of the safest roads in the world and we have achieved this through the sustained use of evidence and innovation in promoting road safety interventions.

“This award for the A75 is welcome recognition of the work undertaken on this important route. We will continue to bring forward appropriate road safety improvements on the A75 where these can be expected to support progress towards our 2020 casualty reduction targets.”

Vince Tait, Scotland TranServ’s road safety manager, said: “We identified a real need for the A75 and worked with Transport Scotland to develop the project and bring that to fruition, with long-term benefits for the safety of road users and particularly the hundreds of HGV drivers using this main artery every day.”

Evan Ferguson, Scotland TranServ’s planned maintenance manager, added: “Vince and his team are at the forefront of strategic road safety planning in the UK.

“What is most pleasing about their work is that behind each of these award-winning schemes is a road safety project designed to prevent injury and save lives.”

*Scotland TranServ, a joint venture between Balfour Beatty and Mouchel, provides a broad range of roads management and maintenance services on behalf of Transport Scotland. Its network spans more than 600km of motorways and trunk roads from Balloch to Stranraer and includes around 1,800 structures. 


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      The article doesn’t go into detail, but I presume activation is triggered by the HGVs’ speeds with a view to achieving speed reduction? If so, was the award in recognition of having actually achieved slower HGV speeds i.e. a before and after study, or is the award for the initial idea and a successful design and installation? I’m not knocking the idea – although intelligent VASs are not new – I just wondered if it had achieved its objective.


      Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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      Well done to the team. If it works then maybe we will see it being in use elsewhere in the UK. Wales maybe. Hopefully.

      The A75 from Dumfries is the major route for goods to Ireland via the port of Stranraer and in its 76 mile length there are only two passing places and they equate to only about 4 miles of duel carriageway. Not much chance to pass anything moving slower than say 50 mph. It’s very similar to the main A9 road up through the highlands that is about 120 miles long with again, dual carriageways few and far between and a 50 mph speed limit. There are no service station for refuelling or rest stops.

      Maybe there should be and then hypoglycaemia or fatigue can be ruled out as a causation of some accidents.


      Bob Craven Lancs
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