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Signs of the times

25/ 3/2008

MADE of steel and glass, the building resembles a modern grain silo. Approached along a winding, leafy lane, it blends in with its Green Belt surroundings. But this is no rural retreat, even though it is set in sylvan surroundings.

In fact, it is the nerve centre of the Highways Agency in the North West, covering a huge area stretching from the Scottish border near Carlisle, south to Stoke-on-Trent, west to Liverpool and east to the Yorkshire border hills on the hills above Milnrow and the Rakewood Viaduct.

It’s is the largest area covered by any of the agency’s seven regional control centres, taking in some of the busiest motorways in the country, including the Manchester Ring of the M60 and the M62 through Rochdale which, at some periods during the day, handles as much traffic as the M25 orbital motorway around London.

Opened in 2005, clues of its role in monitoring and keeping traffic moving as freely as possible is the the fact that it is only 100 yards from the busy M6 at Haydock, near Newton-le-Willows, although the building itself is shielded from the incessant din of passing traffic by a small copse.

As one would expect, the building itself is bristling with all the apparatus of modern communications – satellite dishes to antennas.

State of the art, it is home to a team of operators who set the electronic signs, now so familiar along the motorway network.

They also monitor the 200 or so traffic cameras set a specific locations around Greater Manchester and, probably most important of all, deal with calls from motorists stranded on the motorway for one reason or another.

Working across three shifts to ensure 24 hour-a-day operation, they normally handle up to 340 incidents every day, ranging from debris on the carriageway to motorists running out of fuel and stopping on the hard shoulder, congestion and accidents.

They work in close co-operation with five police forces – Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and Merseyside - along with the other emergency services, the fire brigade and ambulance service, and outside contractors called in to repair damaged motorway furniture such as carriageways, lights and laneside verges, along with routine maintenance work.

When the Highways Agency first started up in 2005 there were some some murmurings of discontent that it was just another government agency usurping the role of the police. In fact it’s been just opposite.

It has freed the police from the more mundane patrol duties so that they can concentrate on major incidents, allowing agency staff to carry out the ‘donkey work’ of making sure traffic flows as smoothly as possible on the seven motorways in the North West region.

On this day, control room team manager Jon Baker is supervising a staff of 20.

Inside the control room, which is lit by artificial lights to keep glare down to a minimum, he sits behind a control desk constantly checking an array of monitors.

Below and In front of him, spread out across a row of 18 desks, are the operators.

Behind him is a ‘silver command’ incident room which swings into action in the event of a major incident.

Like an overseeing committee, it comprises police, fire and ambulance officers, along with senior agency staff.

Their role is to assess the situation, try to work out how it may develop, and come up with the best strategy of how to deal with it.

The time is 2pm and everything looks quiet on this day.

But the word ‘quiet’ is not in the control staff’s vocabulary.

"To us, there is no such thing as quiet period. It may get a bit hectic during the peak hours, but we are very mindful that anything can happen at any time and so we must be constantly vigilant and alert," says Mr Baker.

"All our operators are trained to a very high degree and all the desks are linked so the work load can be shared.

"Our aim here is to work in partnership with the motoring public, easing congestion as quickly as possible and ensuring that drivers are constantly informed of any possible hazards such as breakdowns, road accidents or adverse road conditions such as fog, ice or spray from wet road surfaces.

"Operators work in tandem with our highway patrol officers, exchanging information.

"They also take calls from stranded motorists, logging every call and prioritising them.

"If a motorist is a member of a roadside emergency organisation, like the AA and the RAC, we get in touch with them so they can despatch help.

"If a motorist is not a member of an emergency service, or cannot get a family member or friend to help them, we will arrange for their vehicle to be removed by the national recovery service, although it is important to emphasise that we ourselves are not here to rescue people or recover stranded vehicles."

Control room operator Graham Price is busy on the phone talking to the driver of a car with his wife and two young children on board. His car has had a breakdown on the M62 near Rochdale.

It’s busy spot, but Graham moves effortlessly into a tried and tested routine.

He asks the driver if he is on the hard shoulder, has he put his hazard lights on, and is he and his family able to leave the vehicle safely and wait on a verge well away from the passing traffic?

He finds out the driver is a member of the AA and once he gets the man’s membership number he rings them, tells them what the problem is, and asks them how long it will take them to reach the scene.

This information he passes on to the stranded driver.

He then directs a mobile patrol to the scene to see if they can offer any immediate help or re-assurance and make sure the vehicle is not obstructing traffic and its occupants are well away from it.

This incident has happened close to a fixed camera so he quickly zooms in and assesses the situation for himself.

Twenty minutes later the AA are at the scene, the fault on the car is quickly fixed, and the family are back on their way.

Another job coolly and professionally handled by the control room staff.

Time for a breather, perhaps?

Not a bit of it. Seconds later the phone rings again ... this time a truck has caught fire on an access road to the M56.

Another incident, more decisions to make.

All in a day’s work for the control staff of the Highways Agency.

On the day the Observer visited the control centre they dealt with 287 incidents, including 165 breakdowns (most were vehicles running out of fuel), three cases of animals on the motorways, 10 reports of pedestrians on the motorways, 16 minor collisions, four abandoned vehicles and 30 obstructions.