WSP to support Highways England’s CAV program

Leading multidisciplinary consultancy WSP (formerly WSP – Parsons Brinkerhoff) has been commissioned by Highways England (HE) to drive forward its connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) program over the next four years in a contract worth approximately £1.5m (US$1.9m).

The program is part of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) new CAV strategy and HE’s Innovation Fund to help strengthen the UK as a global center for the fast-growing intelligent mobility market, estimated to be worth £900bn (US$1.2tr) per year globally by 2025. The CAV program is a fundamental part of the UK government’s Digital Strategy. WSP will work closely with HE, the DfT, and other transport authorities, such as Transport for London (TfL) and Kent County Council (KCC), to roll out a world class ecosystem for CAVs across the UK.

As part of this project, a team of specialists at WSP, supported by its supply chain partners, will provide a range of services including program management, design of CAV technology solutions, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, system architecture design, data security and cybersecurity systems, trials evaluation, business case development, road safety case development, and data analysis and modeling.

WSP’s partners include KPMG, Actica, Horiba-MIRA, the University of Bristol, White Willow Consulting, Thales, Harrod-Booth Consulting Ltd, the University West of England, Cadzow Communications Consulting Ltd, and Horsebridge Network Systems Ltd.

This latest appointment follows on from WSP’s successful work achieved on other CAV projects in the UK including:

• A2/M2 London to Dover Connected Vehicle Corridor project, where the company produced the outline system and infrastructure design to develop trial lifecycle costs;

• UK Connected Intelligent Transport Environment where WSP designed the roadside infrastructure and are supporting the operational safety case;

• Transport for West Midlands CAV strategy development;

• CAV technology trials with Somerset County Council.

Last year, WSP produced a report on autonomous vehicles and the development opportunities they could bring to cities, motorways, and suburban and rural areas, in collaboration with architects Farrells. The report indicated that future roads used by CAVs would be cleaner, greener, and safer.

“We’re delighted that we have been appointed by Highways England and their CAV partners to be their Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Pilots Implementation Partner (CAV-PIP),” said Shafiq Garda, project director for intelligent transport services at WSP.

“This presents an excellent opportunity for us to play a major role in delivering this high-profile vision for the UK, and be at the forefront of delivering leading-edge transport technology.”