Cambridge duo among AI innovators chosen for roadworks trial

Traffic disruption is often a hangover of roadworks projects. (Image credit: National Highways)

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National Highways has chosen three artificial intelligence companies, including two from Cambridge, to take part in a trial to investigate how the technology can be used to help improve roadworks projects.

Alchera Technologies and RoboK, both based in Cambridge, and WordNerds, based in Gateshead, will begin the trials in January. Each company has been awarded £60,000 to help get their technology on the road.

Alchera Technologies is planning to use AI to improve roadwork planning by better understanding the impacts of different roadworks and road closures on road users, resulting in improved traffic flow and reduced delays.

Robok will use AI-powered computer vision technology to analyse CCTV footage to understand road user and road worker behaviour and help improve people’s experiences of roadworks.

WordNerds plans to use AI-powered text analytics to provide new insights on people’s perception of roadworks, which could help National Highways make evidence-based improvements on planned works.

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National Highways executive director for major projects Nicola Bell, said: “Our goal in launching the competition was to find new ideas to help reduce the impact of roadworks on people and we are confident these exciting projects will be able to do just that.

“We are putting them to the test on our network which will be the real challenge but we are excited to see how well they perform and the difference they can make not only to road users but people living near ongoing works.

“Roadworks are frustrating but they are an essential part of managing our roads so anything we can do to ease the impact of these vital works is to be welcomed.”

Alchera Technologies co-founder and CEO Anna Jordan said: “Alchera already works with major highways customers. It was a natural progression to seek a relationship with the biggest customer in our home market, National Highways. The competition provided us with that opportunity. The trial enables us to proof our technology in day-to-day operations, demonstrate the value to National Highways, seeking to establish a business-as-usual relationship at conclusion.”

Robok co-founder and CEO Hao Zheng said: “We are excited to team up with National Highways and Balfour Beatty utilising CCTV cameras at roadworks to improve road user experiences. This project has the potential to unlock rich information to drive informed decisions, benefiting drivers, workers and the wider community as a whole.”

Tier One contractors Balfour Beatty, Costain and Kier will work with the three companies to implement the AI technologies.

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