Innovation moves from pilot to practice at LCRIG Festival

Speaker A: The podcast for highways and transport technologies professionals. This is Highways Voices.

Speaker B: Welcome to another Highways Voices from me, Paul Hutton. And this week we're bringing you a special program with content from the ELCRIEK Innovation and Learning Festival at Stoneleigh park in Warwickshire, the event that really does put innovation into action. Over the next half hour, you'll hear from some of the people who are, uh, developing the ideas, technologies and practical solutions that are really changing the way we look after our roads. From connected vehicle data that's moving beyond endless pilot projects and into everyday operations, to artificial intelligence that can identify defects and help manage highway assets, we'll be finding out how innovation is becoming part of business as usual. We'll also look at how local authorities are responding to increased investment in highways maintenance, hearing from companies developing new equipment to make roadwork safer and more efficient, and discussing why bringing the public and private sectors together in one place remains so valuable. As always, it's not just about the technology, it's about the people behind it, the conversations that spark new ideas and the partnerships that turn innovation into reality. So wherever you're listening, thanks for joining us and let's head to the elkrigg Innovation and Learning Festival on today's Highways

Speaker A: Voices, bringing you keynote speaker quality guests into your phone or laptop. This is Highways Voices, and we'll start

Speaker B: with a chat with my friend Andy Graham of White Willow Consulting, who, as I said when I introduced his panel discussion at the event, has forgotten more about connected vehicles than most people have ever known. His panel was all about the implementation of connected vehicle data. And a line that really struck me was when he said the concept has had more pilots than British Airways and that it's time to actually use them in anger.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah, I've used that line for a number of years now. I think actually it's become true in that many of the people in the, uh, halls just to the left of us are now selling services, providing data from connected vehicles, which used to be PowerPoints two or three years ago, and showing live what's happening in Essex or Jersey or Surrey or a number of different places for their data. And one of the questions we were asked yesterday was, how do I get data from cars and vehicles? They're there, they're doing it. And so there's no need to pilot that. In fact, DFT has now done some work with a publicly available Standard 2161, to approve in inverted commas some of these sources of data which you can use in order to get your funding approvals done. So we've moved from PowerPoint to DFT. Tick in the box.

Speaker D: This is an interesting group of people that come to the Innovation Festival because looking across the grass in front of us we see a lot of heavy plant machinery alongside.

Speaker C: Diggers.

Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. Diggers, road marking systems and the sort of the civil side of the industry. But the whole strap line of the Innovation Festival is where the road meets technology. Do you think the message is getting through to the wider uh, highways professionals that the connected part of this is now uh, an option that they can really use and make m the most of?

Speaker C: I think so because I was talking to some people yesterday who are using data for connected vehicles to identify road defects in a matter of minutes and hours and then look and go, oh, there's three of those on that particular set of roads, there's enough there for a job. So in the tasking of a crew there's enough there to warrant X, Y, Z because we've measured the size of it and whatever. So I think we're moving from the left hand side of data from vehicles right through to the end of the chain of solving the problem. One of the benefits as well as time was just the speed of finding things before they get bad. But also instead of having two crew in a survey vehicle, you can now use one and use technique in the vehicle and in the future there might be all sorts of new ways of collecting data. We were talking about the idea of walking along footpaths and somebody said we've got body cams on all of uh, our parking attendants. Could that video be used too? So I still think there's a great room for innovation. What I don't want to do is pilot stuff that we've been piloting for donkeys years.

Speaker D: And I think you've touched on this in something that came up in the conversation we had at the SWACO user group on the highways. Voices I recorded there that actually you don't even need a business case. Some of the stuff we've worked on in the quarter of a century we've been friends has been stuff where you had to go out and get funding for it, but you've just identified so many cost savings that it's not that you've got to go and get extra budget, you're actually going to make money out of doing this.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: Or do more for the same budget that you've got or be able to flex it in different ways and also just to be a bit more, what's the word I want responsive. So when things go wrong and you can find them out quickly before they develop into even bigger things. And much of it is now off the shelf. So what is looking innovative to people last year is now on the shelf and doable. A lot of it using AI, lots of it using cloud storage, a lot of it using various different types of data. And it's all been thought through about GDPR and privacy and all that kind of stuff, so we don't need to reopen that. Oh, yeah. But it's all privately identifiable data. Clever people have worked on this for a long time and worked out how to get around it. And also some of the sources of data are seeing. And now, because they come from big vehicle manufacturing groups, that's called a Volk, Volkswagen. There's very large sample sizes. Now, it's not like the early days that you and I started out when we were working at the M25 and there was one floating vehicle on it, pinging every five minutes where it was. I vividly recall you saying, wouldn't it be good if we had 1% of the vehicles on the network?

Speaker D: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker C: Now we've got probably 15, 20, 30, depending on your use case.

Speaker D: And you're the chair of the Transport Technology Forum's Connected Vehicle Services interest Group. How can people get more help from TTF in actually implementing this stuff? Because they might understand it exists, but not really understand.

Speaker A: How do you do it?

Speaker C: One particular ask is that, uh, we deal a lot with vehicle makers and they have some very clever people, but the greatest respect, they don't understand roads. The only interface that they've had with roads up to date has been for black things made by Goodyear. So they keep inventing solutions to problems that we don't have and understanding, for example, things like near misses and risk and safety. So what I think would be really useful is for people, particularly local authorities, to say, here's a problem that we can't see how to solve. Can you, with your clever people in automotive, think of a solution? Um, we were particularly talking yesterday with National Highways about ghost drivers. That, uh, is people who go down the wrong side of a slip road. And there are various ideas that you could do with that because it's very easy to detect them. So I think that the answer to your question is to actually put some challenges out there for us. In many cases, you might find that the challenge that you put has actually been solved, but we haven't been very good at telling you that we've done that. And one of the things I'd really like to do, I think for perhaps when it's not quite so warm is do another webinar. Uh, we did one on how TTF Live went. I'd like to do one about where we are with connected vehicle data, particularly in terms of asset management. So data from the vehicle. We do a lot about information into the vehicle because it's interesting and we can show it off. But the real engine room for driving this change is the value of the data from a vehicle.

Speaker D: You can find out more from Andy, loads of articles on highways news, but you can also go to the TTF website, search the Connected Vehicle Services group and you can get in touch with Andy through that for now. Andy, thanks ever so much for Highways

Speaker A: Voices, the podcast of highways news, your one stop destination. For all the news about the highways and transport technology industries and our must read daily newsletter.

Speaker D: Let me take you back to Highways UK last year and a conversation with Sam Brearley from Nikanda.

Speaker F: Tii, like many national and local authorities, have a lot of assets that they've been deploying over the last 20, 30 years and just haven't kept up with maintaining an asset register. The result of this is that they have a lot of kit out there that either is there, is in poor condition or is missing and they have no efficient means of collecting that information. TII approached us just a couple of months ago with a view to creating the asset register and asked us if we were able to help them along that journey. So they had plenty of videos that they had from dash cams of engineers. And what we've done is provide or develop over the past two, a web tool for, in this instance, tii, but local authorities can use it, national authorities can use it where they can upload their videos and our service will store that so it's for retrieval later and process it and create an asset registry of everything that they've got. The example we've got here is for fixed signage. So the signage will be categorized correctly and associated with an item within a database. In this instance it's our asset management system. And then when they come back to it 12 months later and they're doing another surve, you can then determine whether or not something's changed. Is it missing? I was expecting to see a 50 kilometer sign here. It's no longer there, it's been knocked over. Maybe it's dirty, maybe it just needs a little bit of cleaning. This is all about creating that baseline asset database to enable efficient and more efficient operations in the future.

Speaker D: So that was absolutely brand new that Nikand, uh, weren't even particularly launching it, then they'd just done it as a proof of concept and thought it was so good they wanted to show it off. So here we are six or so months later and I'm with Sam again here at the Innovation Festival. Sam, you've got a sort of polished version of what we saw at, uh, Highways UK on screen. How has the project gone in the last six months?

Speaker F: Very quickly. It's going to be the best way of describing it. With the support of our partners over in Ireland, we've moved what is an innovation project to use simple AI and computer vision technologies to recognize assets into creating a total asset management solution. Going from early detection and, uh, recognition of signs on street to being able to dispatch engineers through the asset management tool. So if you consider this from an engineer's perspective, they would have. They use a dash cam. They record their day's work naturally. As they do, they upload their videos. The AI in the background will then determine the condition of the roads.

Speaker D: Potholes.

Speaker F: In this use case we've got here, uh, it's detecting signs. It makes that consideration against what it knows about within the asset management system and then you are then capable within a single system to identify faults, perform inspections and dispatch engineers. So you can imagine the workflow going from early detection to a dispatch of an engineer within one system and one seamless workflow.

Speaker D: Now, in the six months since we talked, potholes have gone from being an irritant to a headline grabber. And the fact that, uh, for example, where I live in Essex, the new council leader who was elected in May, announced straight away a pothole emergency and set the Highways team a, uh, really quite tough target of how many potholes to fill in. That's leading to challenges for Highways professionals to actually be able to cope and do what their political masters expect them to do. How can this help them?

Speaker F: It's all about prioritisation. And if you've got multiple systems looking at the same problem, the prioritisation task is quite an effort. Taking data from one system, putting it into another. Maybe there's a bit of integration there with this solution here. You can go from identification of a pothole, characterise it in a particular way that you want to say, whether that's determined on size, depth, width or the road condition index itself. And you can dispatch an engineer straight from the service.

Speaker D: So is it for sale at the moment? If somebody wanted it, could they phone up Nikanda and get you to come and integrate something? Or is it still got work that needs to be done?

Speaker F: It's got a very little bit of work to be done, but we will have concluded that by early August, just in time for the PAS accreditation process.

Speaker D: Fantastic stuff. And of course you can find out more about the PAS accreditation, uh, process on the webinar that I hosted with trl. Sam, great to see you. Have a good summer, because I will no doubt see you again at all the events that take place through the autumn. But for now, thanks for updating us and keep us updated on Highways news. But for now, thanks for joining us on Highways Voices.

Speaker F: Thank you very much, Paul. Speak to you soon.

Speaker B: Next up on Highways Voices is a first for me, interviewing a robot. I was on stage to kick off day two of the event with luca, a robot demonstrating how artificial intelligence can become a natural part of the highway sector.

Speaker D: Well, thank you very much indeed, Luca, for that welcome and introduction. Before you go back to your stand, I just want to ask a couple of questions of you because as someone who can probably process information, basically a few seconds compared to the rest of us before our morning coffee, in your opinion, which session should attendees make sure they don't miss today?

Speaker G: The Structures, Funding and Transparency Reporting sessions are two key discussions taking place today. They provide valuable insights into future funding opportunities, policy developments and reporting requirements that will directly impact local authorities and the wider highway sector. Even my algorithms would recommend those.

Speaker D: And early bird bookings for next year's festival are now open. You mentioned that. Based on your calculations, what are the chances people will regret not booking early?

Speaker G: Uh, extremely high. While I don't usually deal in predictions without data, the festival continues to grow each year, bringing together the people, ideas and innovations shaping the future of the highway sector. It's the place to learn, collaborate, and stay ahead of what's next.

Speaker D: Now, I know you said that excited is an emotion, but looking ahead to 2027, what are you most excited about?

Speaker G: I am particularly interested in seeing how the ideas and outputs from this year's hackathon develop into real projects, learning opportunities and future discussions across the sector. The Innovation Accelerator program creates a genuine pathway from innovation to implementation, which is where ideas start delivering real value.

Speaker D: Thank you very much for your time, Luca. Finally, any advice for festival attendees from our resident robot guest?

Speaker G: Yes. Attend the sessions, ask ah, questions, share ideas, and speak to someone you haven't met before. The best innovations often come from unexpected conversations.

Speaker D: Ladies and gentlemen, Luca.

Speaker B: Yes, we really did applaud a robot. Another thing we applauded was the Apprentice, uh, winners at the DFT Excellence Awards at the event, which I was proud to have hosted on the Wednesday night In the Heat at Stoneleigh Park. Read up about all the winners on the Highways News website. I've put a link in the blurb now talking about next generation. Over the past few months on Highways Voices, I've introduced you to a new member of our Highways news team who's Libby McMahon. You'll have seen her on our, uh, TikTok channel, among other places. And here she is with her first Highways Voices interview.

Speaker E: So thanks Paul. I'm here with one of the leading experts in the industry, knows everyone and knows what's going on. It's Neil Levitt. So Neil, you've had a chance to look around at the festival today. What have you seen that's really caught your attention?

Speaker H: Thanks for the introduction. It's uh, a very kind and generous one, but I'm not sure if that's totally accurate. But thank you anyway. Yeah, it's good to have a look around the event. You can see behind me a lot going on, uh, nice and early here in the morning, so the sun's not too hot yet. So I've had a quick look around before it got too sticky out there. And there's a lot of innovation out there for the local authority marketplace. One of the things I really liked was a new temporary traffic light that solar gates have got out there from a company called Burlex. Rather than having just a normal traffic light which works on radio frequencies to communicate between them, this one's actually got sim, uh, minutes, so you can actually dial into it from anywhere in the world and operate them and check the battery capacities. So saving people going in and out, I thought that was a really cool innovation. So if you're doing interviews while you're here, Liberty probably worth going over and having a look at that. There's some other massive pieces of equipment that you can see over here and Multivo are here as well with their usual array of attachments with their, ah, multi hog range of products as well, which are always good to see. So yeah, absolutely loads going on. Really excited to have a good look around today.

Speaker E: Yes, definitely. So why are events like the L Creek Innovation Festival important for the highway sector?

Speaker H: So when I used to run Highways magazine about 15 years ago, we had an event which was called Seeing is Believing. And we always used to go to Trafx at the nec and it was indoor, people had their booth, it was a sterile exhibition environment. But a lot of the kit for the highway sector, uh, needs to go out into the roads and onto the marketplace here. So you can see we've got the roads and we've got the track all behind us here and we had an event called Seeing is Believing and that event finished after we'd sold the business. So to have something like this come back into the marketplace and again, for the local authorities is good because it means that they can come out, they can see the products in action, they can see them working, they get an understanding of how they operate, how they might actually integrate in terms of their own networks, and they can see them for scale as well, about where they can actually start thinking about placing them on their own network. So, yeah, really good to have something back in the sector.

Speaker E: Amazing. And what are you most looking forward to seeing or discussing over the rest of this event?

Speaker H: I was speaking to Steve Walton earlier on from. From Vire East Midlands, uh, about projects that he's got going on. He was talking that he's now got massive maintenance budgets. He's got to get spent on the state of their roads and their network as well. So I think one of the things that's really going to be interesting to understand is the sight line of funding that local authorities think they're going to get for maintenance. We can see that the roads and the network are, uh, literally disintegrating in front of our eyes in places. And I think that having a conversation about sharing knowledge, sharing techniques and also whether it's pooling of resources when it comes to procurement for maintenance projects can really work as well. So interested to understand about that.

Speaker E: Amazing. Thank you, Neil, for joining us on Highways voices.

Speaker H: No problem. Good to see you.

Speaker B: Libby M McMahon chatting to Neil Leavitt there. And we'll hear more about those new traffic signals he mentioned in a moment. But first, another of Neil's highlights. Steve Walton, who's pre construction director, uh, at VIA East Midlands, and I caught up with him and started by asking him to explain what VIA East Midlands do.

Speaker I: VIA East Midlands are a technical organisation. They deliver the frontline highway services for Nottinghamshire County Council. We're wholly owned by the County Council and everything we do is for the benefit of the client and the communities that we serve.

Speaker D: And, um, how's the funding going?

Speaker I: Funding's going really well this year. We've had an increased level of funding this year we had new administration in 2025 and they're really keen on investing in the asset, which is great for me. So I look after the assets and my team look after the assets back in via. And overall we've seen about 100% increase this year on the actual Budget allocations for highway maintenance. It's a real game changer for us and it's a real step change for highway maintenance in the industry I think

Speaker D: now obviously the P word is everywhere at the moment. It was all over the local elections. Where I live in Essex, the first thing the new leader of the county Council did was declare a pothole emergency and set a very ambitious target for filling potholes. Now my immediate question, knowing about the industry is whilst the revenue is very welcome, the money is very welcome to pay for it. Have we actually got the people and the resources to actually deliver the work now there's money to pay for it?

Speaker I: I firmly believe we have, yeah. Certainly within via, we've got a strong A team internally both on the asset and planning side preparing the programs for delivery. And on the operational side we've got a really healthy DLO within via, about 250 strong. And then for the larger renewal uh, scheme elements we rely on our supply chain partners. We've got robust frameworks in place with a number of key contractors, some of which are here today and it's allowing us to program and plan effectively and efficiently across the network.

Speaker D: So what's your day job looking like at the moment?

Speaker I: Very busy, I have to say. Very busy. The big challenge this year with the increased allocations is obviously squeezing everything onto the network. We really have to plan accordingly. Permits are a challenge. We have to be working safely within certain parameters. However, the uh, teams are working really hard to ensure that we fit everything on the network, we deliver everything we set out in our annual program. And the challenge we've set ourselves is for all of the larger sort of projects to deliver those by, within the calendar year. So to deliver those by the end of December, not the end of April, end of March, big challenge, but certainly got the team and the support network around us to be able to deliver that.

Speaker D: And um, what's your recommendation to counterparts? Maybe not working for Techiles but just in other local authorities? Working other local authorities or for them to deliver similar challenges.

Speaker I: It's all about the program and planning. I believe with robust longer term programmes there is far more ability to be able to shape those programs to suit. And if we can all really get to the bottom of the challenges around the enhanced allocations and the number of projects which have increased and plan those effectively and I think we can deliver, still deliver some real long term asset management benefits for the, for the asset.

Speaker D: And always it doesn't matter how good or bad the industry is, there are always challenges that come up that you start talking to people about that you haven't heard before. And the one that has been repeated several times in the Innovation Festival this year is concern among the supply chain about local government reorganisation and their worry that everything's going to be put on hold, especially when it comes to the innovation bit. If the people that they're dealing with are having to spend their time concentrating on, in effect applying for their own jobs, are, uh, you going to face that sort of thing in Nottinghamshire or because you're a tech hall, could you be shielded from that?

Speaker I: To an extent. We certainly have a certain level of protection from that. Uh, we've already undertaken some work in the background with regards to what the future landscape could look like. As a business, we need to ensure that long term strategies are correct to enable us to continue to deliver successfully. I think ultimately the authority themselves are pushing hard to gear themselves up to be able to answer those questions. As, ah, a supporting organisation to Nottinghamshire, we will obviously provide data and analytics to support, support the, whatever the future landscape looks like. But at the moment we're just fully concentrating on delivering this most successful year ever, uh, and with the highest allocations that we've ever seen from the council. So a really positive story up to now.

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Speaker D: I've come outside into the blazing sunshine and heat again here at the Elkrigg Innovation and Learning Festival. And I'm with Anna Blake, who's commercial director of Solar Gates. And Anna, what are you showing off out here?

Speaker E: We've got lots to show off today. So we've got our remote operated stop go into room go. We've got our insta room barrier for the highways, which is good. And then we've also got these new addition of our Bolex traffic lights.

Speaker D: Okay, we'll come to the signals in a moment but I wanted to want to know about the barriers and the things that we know solar gates for.

Speaker E: The things you know solar gates for are. Yeah, instaboom barrier, which is a fantastic little bit of kit. It's on wheels so it can close a road in seconds. Uh, it is roadside solar as well. You can. So it lasts up to three weeks on solar, but you can add some extra solar if you ever need it to be fully self sustaining. It can come with a light kit too if you want some extra visibility, if you're doing night works. And at the interim go, which is our remote operated stop go it's fantastic where you can do stop, go work up to four way with one person. So it saves cost, saves labour and they're solar powered so you're saving carbon too.

Speaker D: This is becoming a bit of a theme. The fact that in days gone by, I was saying this to my uh, friend Andy Graham about connected vehicle solutions that in days gone by you had to go and try and sell an idea but it was going to cost money and the benefits could sometimes be for say traffic management. That means that there were fewer delays, but that's fairy gold that goes into the overall economy and nobody's going to write you a check for it. So you've got to find the money. Whereas here all the solutions, like the fact it's a uh, one person operation for four for example, that's stuff that is, is an immediate saving. So it must be easier to write the business case for it.

Speaker E: 100%. We try to make products, all of our products. We try to increase efficiency, cut costs for our customers and help their stuff sustainability goals too. We build our solar products from the ground up, which means the solar power is something that really works for their business and their crews. We try not to deliver something which is just slap a solar panel on the side of it. So yeah, those cost savings are generally three way.

Speaker D: And what's it been like standing outside in the heat here at the, here at the festival these last couple of days?

Speaker E: It was nice this morning, you can probably see the breeze. But yeah, yesterday was very hot in the afternoon especially. But it wasn't too bad, we were okay. I tried to stop at uh, Tesco's last night to get paddling pool but they'd sold out.

Speaker D: And what a surprise. And what about the actual business that you've been maybe getting new leads and things like that? Is this event value for money for actually getting a business that you can write in the future?

Speaker E: Oh, 100%. This event is one of the only or the very few really constructive shows and events that bridges that gap between councils and industry. We get the councils here talking to us about what they want, the problems they see and we get to listen to that. We get to talk to them about what we were developing, but also make sure we're developing the right product for the right reason. We're innovating something that they want rather than just innovation for innovation's sake.

Speaker D: Thanks very much Anna. Now let's catch up with Christopher Long who is operations director at uh, Solar Gates. And you're standing here between two very nice looking traffic signals. But to the untrained eye, they look like any other temporary traffic signals. But is there something different about them?

Speaker J: Well, that's the plan, isn't it? They to all intents and purposes are, uh, just portable traffic signals. But the big difference with these is that they don't have the standard radio connectivity that you'd expect from a set of portable traffic signals for temporary highways works. These are cloud connections first, so they connect to the cellular network. There's a SIM card in, there's two SIM cards in each of the heads to provide redundancy of connection. And then all the device interoperability comes from cloud instruction. Now the benefit for that is that the whole thing is monitorable and controllable from your phone or your laptop or your tablet and you can be anywhere in the world.

Speaker D: And the other thing I understand that's got a limitation about actual radio, is that there are things that can actually corrupt the signals. And a lot of the things that corrupt the signals between temporary traffic signals are actually the things that you're using on the road, like the various heavy machinery that tends to be used in between signals on a, uh, set of roadworks.

Speaker J: I see you attended my CPD session yesterday. Absolutely. That so? Yes, you're right. So the temporary and portable signals that we currently use in the uk, they sit within this congested, license free frequency band. And you're right, there's a lot of other contention in that frequency band to create interference and heavy machinery on site contributes to that too. Now the effect of that interference can be a red, red failover. The whole system stops working and you're looking at a call out. And that's where this really becomes, ah, a money saver. And saves carbon too, because we're looking at fewer callouts. That's less wasted money and it's less diesel, less traffic on the road. The great thing about this product is that it's hugely well established across Europe, but within UK as well. Now there's another company that we work alongside and they've got a huge rental fleet of 500 of these already on the networks. And we're seeing other customers here at the Elkrigg show who are proudly exhibiting their burlex lights as well.

Speaker D: Uh, Chris, thanks very much for explaining.

Speaker J: Thank you very much.

Speaker A: Industry insights and honest opinions. This is Highways Voices and I'm going

Speaker D: to finish off this special Highways Voices from the Elcrieg Learning and Innovation Festival here in Warwickshire by talking about another event that technically in the old days would have been in Warwickshire. It's now in the West Midlands. It takes place 25th to 29th of October next year. I bang on about it to everybody I speak to. It is the, ITS World Congress 2027 coming back to the UK for the first time since London 2006. Jordan Cowley is one of the team at, uh, Transport for West Midlands who is working on delivering this massive international event. Jordan, how's it going?

Speaker I: So far so good.

Speaker K: I think it's been really interesting and as you've seen from, as people would have seen from recent press releases, we're having the first activities starting to come, um, on board and it's starting to really gather pace.

Speaker D: And why should people come on board? What is it about the World Congress that's just so special, if I'm honest with you?

Speaker K: A lot of it comes down to the audience. It's one of the most unique events when it comes to government attendance. We're expecting probably 15 to 20,000 people, 45% of that will be government officials globally. So in terms of actually influencing politics rather than just looking at trying to sell, in terms of the combined authorities, the local authorities actually influencing the direction of its and transport technology in the future, I think is quite a unique opportunity. And it's the audience that comes to the event that makes it unique.

Speaker D: Uh, this is the 33rd its World Congress, or it will be when it happens in 27 and only the second, second time, as I say, that the UK has hosted it. So I guess it is a once in a couple of decades opportunity for companies in the UK to reach the global market without the expense of having to travel around the world. Like for instance, this year to Korea.

Speaker K: Yeah, definitely. I think it's a completely unique opportunity for the uk. As you said, the last time we had it was 2006 in London. I think having it central in the UK is a good opportunity first and foremost. Just trying to make it accessible for people. But showcasing what the UK does internationally and looking at the export opportunity, likewise trying to look at the inward investment as well. We've got an amazing network of universities. I don't feel like we leverage it enough and we know that these are world leaders. I think having that on the stage as well, and connecting the private sector with academia in the UK and showcasing that on the global stage, I think is going to be really unique and

Speaker H: one hell of an opportunity opportunity.

Speaker D: And the local Transport Minister, Lillian Greenwood, in a speech to its uk, pointed out that although it's in the West Midlands and it's being led by Transport for West Midlands along With Ertico, ITS Europe. It really is a UK wide initiative to promote ITS from the uk.

Speaker K: Yeah, David, I think there's probably a good opportunity for me now to, uh, pass thanks on to the team over at DFT and dbt. I think it's a really important point that you raise. This is not a West Midlands event. This is about the United Kingdom and the work that we do here, the uk on that global stage. We're just fortunate that we're the host and able to represent and carry those thoughts forward on behalf of the uk. But it is well and truly a national event on that global stage.

Speaker B: Gordon cowley from the its World Congress 2027 team there. And an event I can't, um, stress enough you have to get involved in. That'll do it for this special edition of Highways Voices from the Elkrigg Innovation and Learning Festival. Across the program we've heard a consistent message. Innovation in highways is no longer about demonstrating what might be possible one day. Whether it's connected vehicle data, AI powered asset management, smarter temporary traffic, traffic signals or new approaches to maintaining, uh, our networks, the focus has shifted firmly towards implementation and delivering real benefits for highway authorities and the traveling public. Perhaps most importantly, events like this remind me that innovation doesn't happen in isolation. It comes from local authorities sharing challenges, suppliers listening to what customers actually need, and people from across the sector taking the time to have conversations that lead to better ideas and better outcomes. If you'd like to find out more about any of the organisations or technologies featured in the programme, you'll find links in the show notes along with more coverage on Highways News. Thanks as always for listening to Highways Voices. If you've enjoyed the episode, please follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and we'll bring you more conversations from the people shaping the future of transport and highways next week.

Speaker A: Highways Voices is the podcast of Highways News, the website with more stories about the highways and transport technology industries and our must read daily email. Highways News really is the only place you need to go for everything you need to know.