Mouchel has been appointed by AECOM to jointly deliver two of the latest schemes awarded by Highways England on their smart motorway programme, which includes the M62 Junction 10 to 12 and the M6 Junction 21a to 26, in a contract worth circa £2.8m. 

Both schemes will ease congestion by improving transport links between Warrington and Wigan for the M6 and between Liverpool and Warrington New Town and Manchester for the M62, while supporting economic growth in the north of England.  

Mouchel, now part of global professional consultancy WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, will provide engineering and design services, including operational assessments and traffic technology services for electronic signs and signals as well as CCTV and monitoring equipment. This latest appointment builds on Mouchel’s ongoing work on Highways England’s AS14 smart motorway programme operational concept work. 

Mouchel has been involved in smart motorways for a number of years, from supporting Highways England on their initial trials of the Active Traffic Management Pilot and the implementation of the first managed motorway schemes around the Birmingham Box motorway network to the drafting of the specifications for both the dynamic hard shoulder running and more recently the all lane running. 

Phil Barton, senior technical director in intelligent transport services at Mouchel, said: “This is a significant win and we are delighted to have been selected by AECOM as their partner for this. We have experience of working successfully with AECOM and Highways England in the past and the extensive collective experience of smart motorways underpinned by the collaborative cultures embraced by both organisations provide real confidence that the challenging timescales for these schemes will be successfully achieved by the team.

Mouchel has successfully worked on high profile transport projects including construction and design services on the M1 smart motorways and on a major highways and transportation professional services contract for Leeds City Council, as well as managing Highways England’s National Traffic Information Service for seven years and their telecommunications network as part of the National Roads Telecommunications Service specialist consultancy contract.