The M62 in the north-east of England is set to benefit from the installation of new technologies that will boost traffic management and potentially have a considerable impact on levels of congestion in the area over the coming years.

Set to begin on October 6th, a stretch of the carriageway between junctions 30 and 32 will see the installation of Motorway Incident Detection and Automated Signalling (MIDAS) and CCTV technologies.

Information from the newly-installed systems will then be fed back to the nearby Regional Control Centre, allowing control room operators to inform travellers in the area via overhead gantries of traffic conditions along the route, as well as any potential delays or incidents that could impact their journey times.

In this way, the agency is hoping to provide a considerable boost to travel times for future road users, while also ensuring the long-term viability of the M62 as a major arterial route for the north-east of the country.

Several overnight closures will therefore be required for the carriageway in the coming weeks, with the project broken down into four distinct phases. The first will focus on the eastbound carriageway from junction 30 to 31 and will be followed by a second set of works in the opposite direction.

This process will then be repeated later in the month for the route between junctions 31 and 32.

Highways Agency project manager Tom Howard stated: "In order to minimise disruption to the drivers, the closures have been programmed to run in conjunction with the M1 junction 39 to 42 Smart Motorways bridge waterproofing and resurfacing closures, which are also taking place in October.

"Closures for both schemes will always take place on opposite carriageways to avoid drivers having to follow multiple diversion routes."

Mr Howard added that providing motorists with more information to effectively plan and carry out their journeys via the M62 is one of the main aims of these works.