Highways England has selected Mott MacDonald's joint venture with Sweco (MMS JV) to design elements of two smart motorways in southern England.

The MMS JV will develop plans for the schemes between junctions 4-11 of the M27 and junctions 9-14 of the M3.

Features include designing a range of innovative technology solutions, including message signs and signals, CCTV, vehicle detection and variable mandatory speed limit enforcement cameras.

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In addition, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff has been engaged on the scheme, which is expected to take five years to complete, to support its delivery.

MMS JV contract director John Owens said: "We are delighted to have been selected by Highways England to deliver this phase of its smart motorways plan as part of its collaborative delivery framework. Being awarded this latest smart motorways project is testament to the expertise of our transportation team and the quality of our service delivery."

Highways England's national smart motorways programme is aimed at increasing capacity and reducing congestion on 470km of its motorway network by converting the existing hard shoulders into extra running lanes and introducing emergency refuge areas.

Additional new technology will be introduced to control vehicle speeds, manage congestion and assist incident management.

(LM/MH)