The Highways Agency – an executive agency of the UK department for transport (DfT) – brought in the private sector to help piece together a PPP to manage and maintain a communications networks along England's motorways

This involves working on a mixture of optical fibre and copper cables that were laid over the last 40 years to transmit voice and data signals from thousands of road-side devices - ranging from emergency telephones to CCTV cameras and message signs.

Road-side boxes feed information along the communications network to 32 police control offices serving the nation's motorways and are a vital link in providing safe travel along the major English arterials.

However, the existing network evolved in a piecemeal fashion to keep pace with the expanding motorway system and is in dire need of upgrade.

Having developed against a background of under-funding and sporadic growth, the £490 million (US$857m) National Roads Telecommunications Services (NRTS) project to set up a single national approach to the future of the communications on England's motorway and trunk network is one that is sure to grow legs and arms as it develops.

The NRTS project will initially make use of the existing communication network and will allow it to be upgraded and expanded to provide a nationwide network capable of supporting future needs.

The technology that is used for the NRTS may also be used to piggy-back the telecoms element into the electronic road-charging scheme that is sure to be imposed over the coming years.

To finance this, the agency evaluated the options and decided that the best VFM would be achieved through a PPP contract.

However, due to the nature of technology, it is likely that the Fluor-led consortium that won the contract will be in line to win upgrades as time goes by, meaning that the ultimate total value of the project will far outstrip the initial valuation of this project – which is worth £300 million (US$525m) to Fluor alone.

Project award

GeneSYS Telecommunications – a Fluor, HSBC Infrastructure Fund Management joint venture – was awarded the 10-and-a-half year NRTS project by the Highways Agency. It was booked in the company’s third quarter figures.

The NRTS contract includes design, construction and finance of a new telecoms system as well as the upgrade and maintenance of existing infrastructure throughout England’s motorway system, which will enable the rollout of smart-road technology to enhance road safety and better inform the travelling public.

Fluor is responsible for programme management, design, construction, and maintenance of an integrated transmission network. Key subcontractors to the Fluor team on the project are:

• Alcatel
• Peek Traffic
• Mott MacDonald

Patrick Flaherty, managing director of Fluor, says: ‘We are excited by the opportunity to serve the Highways Agency and build a relationship with a customer that offers the potential for extensive future business for Fluor.’

Meanwhile, Highways Agency chief executive Archie Robertson adds: ‘The NRTS system will improve road safety, information to travellers and journey reliability.’

Mott MacDonald project director Terry O’Neill says: ‘This prestigious project will change how the HA delivers its existing services to road users and provide a platform for the delivery of new services to the road-side.’

Bob Herritty, Alcatel's UK and Ireland sales director for private markets, says: ‘This will result in a safer road network, more reliable journey times, better information for drivers and reduced incident-related congestion.’

As part of the contract, Alcatel will deploy an end-to-end, managed network solution based on its 1692 Metrospan EDGE CWDM platform, the 7750 Service Router and the OmniPCX enterprise voice-over-IP switch.

Alcatel's 1350 management suite will oversee the new backbone network. Alcatel will provide software and system integration services for all operating and business support systems to enable traffic monitoring from a single network operating center located in Birmingham. In addition, Alcatel will equip a disaster-recovery centre.

‘Alcatel's converged optical and IP networking solution will allow the Highways Agency to simplify network design and optimise deployment, as well as maintenance costs,’ says Herritty.

‘It will create a single infrastructure that is capable of supporting a large variety of specialised subsystems. This consists of optimised and state-of-the-art optical and multiservice solutions able to provide immediate connectivity to the operator's main IT subsystems.’

Legal

Herbert Smith advised the Highways Agency on the project, acting alongside KPMG, Hyder and Detica since being instructed in 1999 to carry out a feasibility study into the options available to the Highways Agency for improving its communications network. GeneSYS was advised by CMS Cameron McKenna.

Cameron McKenna partner Trevor Butcher, who led the team to advise GeneSYS, said: ‘This is an unusual deal in that it is for a 10-and-a-half year tenor. It has been signed up over such a short timescale because the Highways Agency had the view that it could not define its requirements because technology moves so fast in this sector. Therefore, it did not make any sense to have a project that ran for 20-30 years.’

The Herbert Smith team was led by partners David Moore and Adrian Clough. Moore says: ‘This is a significant project for the Highways Agency and represents a good deal for all concerned.’

The Highways Agency was advised by KPMG on financial matters, Detica on technical matters, and Hyder Consulting on project management

Conclusion

When it comes down to value for money – and in this contract it did come down to VFM – PPP was deemed the only option for the NRTS scheme. And it was offered out intentionally on a short term to allow for developments which surely will be installed.

It is also a deal that Fluor hopes to see flourish into a future stream of similar projects that will be well worth the companies’ involvement.

As technology is increasingly involved in road user charging – which seems inevitable – the basic infrastructure that Fluor is putting in place will form the foundation for developments.

Earlier this year transport minister Alistair Darling hinted that in the not-too-distant future cars would be charged for every mile they drive on roads in the UK - not just England. That is going to take a great deal of technology and an infrastructure that is robust enough to cope with it.

This in turn, puts Fluor and its partners in a very strong position to bid for this work as it is already providing that service for the major English arterials.

The project at a glance