Highway Care’s SwiftGate automated taper deployment system has received the Worker and Site Safety Initiative Award at the 2024 Highways Awards and has received endorsement for use on the road network in England and Wales by the Department for Transport (DfT), following appropriate guidance document development, after a successful trial with Kier Transportation in Surrey.
First of its kind in the UK, the automated horizontal gate system was designed and manufactured by Versilis with guidance from the experts at Highway Care to bring it to align to UK standard. With support from National Highways’ Innovation Designated Funds programme – a ring-fenced pot to help maximise the opportunities offered by technologies such as automated vehicles – Highway Care teamed up with National Highways and Kier Transportation to trial the innovation. It was shortlisted for three Highways Awards – Worker and Site Safety Initiative Award, Best use of Technology and Product of the Year.
After being deployed on both approaches to the Hindhead Tunnel on National Highways’ A3 road for a successful trial, SwiftGate is now onto its final stage of development, producing the relevant guidance documentation to enable wider industry use. This comes after the endorsement from DfT, and this innovative safety solution is soon to be improving maintenance project safety for road workers on the English and Welsh network.
Highway Care worked collaboratively with National Highways, Kier Transportation and Versilis to develop the SwiftGate system for the UK market.
The trial demonstrated driver compliance with traffic management speed limits. Additionally, the SwiftGate trial has demonstrated operational benefits, with deployment and retraction proving significantly faster than conventional tapers, improving the efficiency of works and reducing disruption to road users. During the trial, the baseline time taken to deploy a cone-based taper was observed at 7 minutes 30 seconds, while SwiftGate tapers took an average of 2 minutes 34 seconds – almost 5 minutes less. Retraction consistently took 40 seconds with SwiftGate, as compared to the 4 minute 20 second baseline for a manual retraction.
Hindhead Tunnel was chosen for the trial due to the asset requiring regular closures for maintenance, which needed a contraflow system to be put in place to ensure all traffic could be routed through the open bore. Working closely with Kier, the SwiftGate system was installed in the central reservation as a series of six permanently fixed, incrementally sized gates. The electromechanical SwiftGate gates replaced a conventional 135m cone taper and were deployed and retracted with one click of a remote-control device, approved by National Highways Digital Services from a data security perspective. The system also offers the contingencies of deploy and retract buttons in the roadside controller at each gate, or, as a back-up option, the gate can be wound manually by hand.
Highway Care worked with its partners to develop the SwiftGate system for the UK market, engaging with the Department for Transport to establish modifications required. Some of these modifications included: the primary colour, which was changed to white and a sequential circular amber lamp which was added on the edge of the gate, creating a system with the same visual language as standard UK TM equipment.
Arcadis IBI carried out GG104 safety assessments and independent performance reviews, enabling further refinements to be made.
Ben Duncker, Commercial Director at Highway Care commented: “The taper is the most dangerous element of any lane closure and SwiftGate enables an alternative approach to closing a lane which does not require the traffic management team to physically walk in the carriageway. It is proven not only to reduce deployment times but also to cut down exposure to risk.
“National Highways approval is an important step forward in making lane closures safer. If used in combination with our Falcon Automated Cone Laying Machine (ACLM) and gantry signage, SwiftGate could contribute to a completely boots off the ground solution that keeps road workers out of harm’s way, and we are delighted that the system’s safety benefits have been recognised at the Highways Awards.”
Martin Bolt, who oversaw the SwiftGate trial for National Highways, adds: “We believe no one should be harmed while working or travelling on our roads and SwiftGate offers another opportunity to reduce the risk to workers on the roads network.
“We are always looking for new ways to improve safety and through our Innovation and Modernisation Designated Fund have been helping to maximise the possibilities offered by new technologies to improve safety such as automated vehicles.
“The trial has demonstrated that SwiftGate can be used within existing systems of work to improve both the operational efficiency and safety of taper deployments, and we’re looking forward to seeing this system used on future projects.”
The SwiftGate project has also been shortlisted in the Best Use of Technology in the Highways and Transportation Sector category in the upcoming DfT Special Recognition Awards, as well as in the Innovation Award category at this years’ Highways UK Excellence Awards.
