Improving resilience north of the border

摘要

Transport Scotland has strengthened its approach to managing severe weather incidents on the trunk road network through its new 4G maintenance contracts and Traffic Control Centre. Opened this April, Transport Scotland's new National Traffic Control Centre at South Queensferry has large floor to ceiling windows and offers breathtaking views across the Firth of Forth. The location will bear witness to the building of the new Forth Replacement Crossing, a key capital project under way and due for completion in 2016. Transport Scotland's director of trunk road and bus operations Roy Brannen says the new permanent home for the National Traffic Control Centre is "at the heart of all of our operations going forward". The centre acts as an information hub by pulling in and disseminating information about traffic conditions. "The centre acts as the hub for monitoring, controlling and informing travellers about network conditions and helps to ensure our strategic road network continues to help promote economic growth," he says. "It is vital that Scotland's trunks roads remain safe, efficient and well managed. While they make up around 6% of all roads in Scotland, the network carries around a third of all traffic, and over two thirds of heavy goods vehicles. It is for this reason that over ￡2.58n has been invested in the network since 2007."