WORCESTERSHIRE County Council has been awarded £300,000 in government funding to improve response times to incidents on its roads.
The council is one of a number of authorities across the country to have been awarded a share of £4million of technology funding from the Government to cut congestion, speed up journeys and clean up the environment.
The amount given to Worcestershire is among the highest given to any council.
It will be used on an information sharing schemes so incidents can be dealt with quickly by highways staff.
Automated Information Sharing System (AISS) with multi-partner access will allow traffic incidents and traffic management to be dealt with in a coordinated and seamless way and includes:
•Connected highway staff and vehicles
•Observation of camera feeds
•Interactive large screen display for live journey times, planned and emergency road works, incidents and intelligent traffic signal control
•Live critical issues display ribbon – visible and accessible to all partners
Coun Marcus Hart, cabinet member for highways at the county council, said he was extremely pleased with the Department of Transport funding.
“Improving our highways is a key priority for Worcestershire County Council as residents have consistently told us that highways is one of the area that is more important to them.
“This investment will have a significant impact on the efficiency of our highway network, improve our response time to incidents and provide better real time travel information to our residents as they make their way across the county.”
Roads minister Andrew Jones, congratulated winners ‘for coming up with cutting-edge, innovative ideas that will transform journeys for passengers and motorists across the country’, adding technology was rapidly evolving and if projects are got right they will cut congestion, speed up journeys, clean up the environment, and improve accessibility.
