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The Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) has announced the projects that have gone through to the next round of their SMART Places Live Labs competition.
 
Funded by project sponsors including the Department for Transport, SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins business, EY, Kier, O2, and Ringway, the two-year project, in which up to £25 million will be made available, will fund up to six live labs to drive innovation and the use of new materials in local highways.

ADEPT wants to see new models and methods of delivery tested to create new techniques for highways that can be deployed throughout the local roads network. It is the Association’s response to the often piecemeal and patchwork nature of the country’s approach to introducing digital innovation outside the Strategic Roads Network.

The Association received 28 bids from local authorities across the country, with projects costs ranging from £0.5 to £7million. Bidding partnerships included other local authorities, the private sector, universities as well as industrial and international partners.

Many of the schemes focused on use of smarter communications, but they also included deployment of smart materials, adoption of smart energy solutions and enabling SMART mobility.

The successful projects shortlisted below will now go through to the Dragon’s Den stage, where they will pitch their projects to a panel of leading experts. 

Bournemouth
Kent
Buckinghamshire
Central Bedfordshire
Reading
Solihull & Birmingham
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Hampshire
Surrey

ADEPT President, Neil Gibson said: “Congratulations to the projects through to the next round. We were pleased to see so many ADEPT members enter some truly innovative, wide-ranging schemes. Implementing digital innovation across the local roads network is critically important, so we are looking forward to seeing how the projects have developed at the Dragon’s Den.”

The winning projects following the Dragon’s Den will be announced in due course.