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This year’s Highways UK brought together the highways, transport and infrastructure community for two busy days of discussion and innovation. For ADEPT and the Live Labs 2 leadership and project teams, the event provided a useful snapshot of where the market currently stands and the direction of travel for the sector.

ADEPT Chief Executive Officer Hannah Bartram reflects on her key observations from the event and what they mean for Live Labs 2 in its final 6 months and subsequent monitoring and evaluation period.

A busy floor and a strong appetite for innovation

Highways UK 2025 was extremely well attended. Footfall on day one was particularly high, with packed aisles and full theatres. Sessions that focussed on innovation, asset management, resilience and future-ready highways attracted strong audiences and plenty of questions from the floor.

This level of engagement demonstrates a continuing appetite for change and for new ways of working and problem solving. For Live Labs 2, that enthusiasm is welcome because it shows even more evidence of our belief that the sector has the capacity and interest to experiment, adopt and learn. As a leadership team, we have always said that these are the essential conditions for innovation in the sector to take hold. 

Carbon - becoming the background theme, not the headline

While there was plenty of discussion about innovation, one striking observation was how little the topic of carbon saving and carbon reduction featured across the exhibition stands. A walk around the conference hall found the word ‘carbon’ mentioned only nine times. For a sector that recognises the scale of the net zero challenge, this was a noticeable omission.

Most exhibitors led with messages about efficiency, asset performance, resilience and digital transformation. Carbon outcomes were mentioned far less frequently. This may reflect the difficulty of presenting complex carbon data and lifecycle benefits in attention grabbing marketing or promotional terms. It could also suggest a change in language and that carbon reduction is now regarded as a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator.

Whatever the reason, the relative absence of and change in carbon messaging is significant. It highlights the importance of keeping carbon outcomes visible and measurable, particularly for Live Labs 2, which is focused on decarbonising local roads and highways infrastructure. Translating innovation and efficiency gains into clear metrics is essential if we are to demonstrate genuine progress.

AI, efficiency and resilience

In contrast to this, artificial intelligence dominated both the stands and the discussions. From data platforms and predictive maintenance tools to automated inspection systems, AI was positioned as the key driver of innovation.

Efficiency and resilience were also heavily emphasised and these are important drivers for the Live Labs 2 programme, which aims to create a more resilient and sustainable local roads network. A resilient system is one that requires fewer emergency interventions, generates less waste and disruption and ultimately supports lower emissions and better value for money.

However, as with all new technologies, the challenge lies in understanding the impact and the cost. The sector is embracing digital transformation, but our monitoring and evaluation work must go further, testing whether these tools lead to measurable carbon savings, changes in behaviour or improved longer term outcomes for local authorities and communities.

Who was in the room

Highways UK remains a strong draw for consultants, suppliers and private sector organisations, many of whom work closely with National Highways. The exhibition floor and audience mix reflected this. What was less visible was the presence of local authorities.

Given that Live Labs 2 is led by local highways authorities, this matters. Local government manages the majority of road networks and infrastructures, and they face many of the practical challenges that innovation aims to address. Without strong local authority engagement, opportunities for uptake and scaling could become more limited.

This underlines the need for continued local authority focused engagement within Live Labs 2, through workshops, peer networks and practical briefings. Our aim is to ensure that innovation is accessible and applicable to those responsible for local delivery.

Reflections and impacts for Live Labs 2 monitoring and evaluation

From a monitoring and evaluation perspective, several key lessons emerged from the event:

• Keep carbon explicit. Efficiency and resilience are important, but decarbonisation must remain a visible and measurable outcome.
• Engage with AI and data but focus on results. Digital innovation is advancing rapidly, but evaluation must look beyond new tools to assess behavioural change, long-term value and tangible carbon or financial benefits.
• Strengthen local authority engagement. Local government needs to be more consistently represented in national innovation forums. ADEPT and Live Labs 2 will continue to seek to bridge that gap.
• Harness market energy but stay focussed on measurable outcomes. The innovation market is vibrant and the challenge is to align that energy with practical outcomes that deliver measurable environmental and operational value.

The Highways UK 2025 event showed a sector that is active, curious and data driven. For Live Labs 2, the event offered encouragement, perspective and insights into how our work will be viewed in the coming years.

Whilst a lot of focus was on AI, there was little on AI and its use on tackling wicked problems such as carbon and resilience. This is something that we as ADEPT will need to consider so that time, effort and resources are targeted.

The momentum around AI and efficiency is positive, but the decarbonisation story needs to be clearer. The enthusiasm for innovation is strong, but local authorities must be central to its development if it is to deliver real, lasting change.

As Live Labs 2 moves into the final stage of the programme these observations will inform how we monitor progress and assess impact, ensuring that digital innovation leads to practical and scalable outcomes.

Highways UK was a reminder of how far the highways sector has come in embracing innovation and how much potential remains to connect that innovation directly to the goals of decarbonisation and resilient highways.

Further information

• For more information on ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK, please look at the Live Labs 2 section on the website
• You can discover more about the Live Labs 2 Decarbonisation of Highways Pledge here and the launch event at Westminster here

Author

• Hannah Bartram is Chief Executive Officer of ADEPT