In association with WJ Group.
How rethinking incident visibility can support safer journeys.
Responding quickly to incidents in roadworks is an important part of protecting road users and the people working on the network. Before recovery teams can be sent to a broken-down vehicle or other incident, operators need to know that it has stopped and where it is. Where CCTV cannot be installed, obtaining that information can take longer, leaving teams more dependent on reports from road users, site staff or traffic management patrols.
Narrow verges can restrict camera installation, while the duration or budget of certain temporary works may make comprehensive CCTV coverage impractical. WJ’s Active Vehicle Event Recognition Alerts, or AVERA, was developed to help teams monitor these locations and identify incidents sooner, without installing additional roadside infrastructure.
The software combines multiple live data sources to identify stopped vehicles and other potential hazards. When an event reaches an agreed confidence threshold, it generates an alert for WJ’s Control Centre, where operators can assess its location and determine the appropriate response. Live mapping helps operators locate incidents, while historical information and downloadable summaries allow teams to review what happened and how the scheme performed.
AVERA can also work alongside existing CCTV and radar, filling gaps in coverage rather than requiring teams to replace the systems already in place. This allows monitoring to be adapted to the layout and requirements of individual schemes, including those where cameras may cover only part of the works for various reasons.
Supporting incident response in roadworks
On a scheme on the A52, CCTV was impractical to install, but AVERA enabled incidents to be identified and located. Christopher D Hayball FIHE, Construction Manager at National Highways (Midlands), commented “AVERA proved ideally suited to the A52 Queens Medical Centre to Priory Island scheme, where limited space prevented the installation of CCTV. The system demonstrated impressive accuracy, quickly identifying and pinpointing the exact location of a broken-down vehicle. This helped ensure that National Highways customers and recovery operatives returned home safe and well, while reducing disruption to road users and enabling our contractors to continue delivering the works safely and efficiently”.
A month-long deployment on the M4 J37/38 temporary works explored how earlier incident detection could support recovery. During the deployment, AVERA identified 73 incidents, giving operators information that helped them direct resources to the appropriate location. This was delivered without the need for roadside infrastructure, and we estimated this helped reduce average recovery times by 20%, with some incidents cleared up to 40% faster than would normally have been expected.
Craig Clarke, Commercial Manager at Quantum Traffic Management, described how the system helped the team: "On the M4, AVERA gave us earlier and more complete visibility of incidents than we'd normally have on temporary works. Pulling several data sources into a single clear alert meant our team knew sooner that something had happened, and could send the right response straight to the right location.
On schemes where CCTV isn't practical or possible, it's the kind of coverage we'd want in place. And where we do have cameras, I can see it working alongside them - picking up the blind spots and flagging incidents before anyone spots them on a monitor."
While operators arrange a response, they can also warn drivers approaching the incident. Through integration with Safety Cloud® by HAAS Alert, WJ’s Control Centre can share live warnings about stopped vehicles and other emerging hazards through navigation apps and compatible connected vehicles. These warnings are intended to help drivers prepare before reaching a hazard and support efforts to reduce the risk of secondary incidents.
Looking beyond the immediate works area
During full weekend closures for the A47 Tuddenham project near Norwich, Galliford Try needed to understand how traffic was responding along a 58-mile diversion route. Installing fixed CCTV across that distance would have been impractical, so the team worked with WJ to trial AVERA on the diversion route to understand the impact during closures in November 2025 and February 2026, reviewing journey times, delays, stopped-vehicle events and potential incident hotspots.
Christopher Puttrell, Traffic and Logistics Manager, Galliford Try, said “Galliford Try were able to trial the AVERA system in a number of areas outside of its initial scope. The system helped the project monitor diversion routes during full weekend road closures of the A47 Tuddenham Project near Norwich. After each weekend road closure WJ provided a report we were able to understand the true impact of the closures on journey times, delays, and incidents and evaluate whether AVERA can reliably monitor performance and identify hotspots or risks, which lead to a number of improvements for future closures both on the ground and with the product.
The capability to incorporate real time alerts will enable projects to deal with issues then and there rather than waiting for feedback from stakeholders or the public. The scale and versatility of the product based on the data available to it, will enable project to not only interrogate traffic issues within roadworks (and identify stopped vehicles) but also the impact on the surrounding road network.”
For highways teams planning temporary works, the monitoring arrangements need to reflect how incidents will be identified and dealt with, including on sections where cameras cannot be installed. We see AVERA as a way to give those teams useful coverage without additional roadside infrastructure, while retaining the CCTV and radar already serving a scheme. Used in this way, it can support day-to-day incident response and give engineers better information when reviewing the works and planning subsequent closures.
About WJ Group
WJ Group is a UK road marking and highway safety business, supporting strategic road networks, local authorities and off-highway markets. We provide road markings, road studs, road-marking asset management, surface treatments and intelligent traffic solutions, including CCTV, temporary automatic speed cameras and stopped vehicle detection.
