Year | Month | Related events | The Active Traffic Management (ATM) Project - Related events | NAO comment | |
1996 |
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| Netherlands and Germany introduce trials of hard shoulder running |
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1997 |
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1998 |
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1999 |
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2000 | August | Orbit Report commissioned | ATM announced Agency considers M25 for the ATM trial but rejects it in favour of the M42 |
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2001 | July |
| Department announces M42 ATM trial | Five years after it had been trialled in Europe | |
2002 | November | Orbit Report published |
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2003 | March |
| Construction begins on the M42 ATM trial |
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| July | Secretary of State responds to the Orbit Report. The Government announces its intention to proceed with the project to widen five sections of the M25 |
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2004 | April | The five M25 widening schemes enter into the Highways Agency Programme. Construction expected to start in May 2007. The procurement strategy has not been decided at this stage |
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| November |
| NAO reports that the Agency is too risk-averse in testing measures such as ATM |
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2005 | May | Construction start put back to May 2008 during consultation with industry. The Agency had by now decided to widen four sections using private finance |
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| July | Section 3 M25 : Contract awarded to Costain | ATM construction finished |
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| November | M25 Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union | Three lane variable mandatory speed limits in place on M42 |
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2006 | September |
| The Agency introduces hard shoulder running on the M42 | Five years after the Agency's trial was announced | |
2007 | May | One of the M25 bidders asked if it could submit ATM variant bid Agency concludes that ATM should be seriously considered Agency considers mandating a compulsory variant for ATM |
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| June | Legal advisers state that allowing ATM variants could be challenged in the courts. The Agency recommends to the Secretary of State to proceed with the widening and to disallow the variants |
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| June | Work begins on Section 3 of the M25 |
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| July | Secretary of State in response to the Agency's recommendation confirms his approval to proceed with the widening Agency declines the ATM variant |
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| October |
| Interim six month report on the monitoring and evaluation of Active Traffic Management published |
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2008 | March |
| Advanced Motorway Signalling and Traffic Management Feasibility Study (ATM feasibility study) identifies a number of sections of the motorway network that would benefit from controlled use of the hard shoulder |
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| March | Secretary of State asks for reassurance on widening rather than using ATM. Agency recommends proceeding with the widening and the Secretary of State agrees |
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| May | Preferred bidder selected |
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| July | Construction widening work on Section 3 of the M25 completed | 12 month report on the evaluation of the ATM trial published |
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| October |
| 60mph hard shoulder running in place on M42 |
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2009 | January |
| Britain's Transport Infrastructure Motorways and Major Trunk Roads published stating that ATM will be rolled-out nationally identifying savings on average of 40 per cent but up to 60 per cent over widening | Eight years after the Agency's trial was announced, 13 years after trials started in Europe | |
| May | ATM likely to be used for Sections 2 and 5 of the M25 |
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| May | M25 contract awarded |
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