A day in the life of a National Highways traffic officer in Kent and south east control room manager
From herding bulls off the motorway to being the first on the scene of a serious crash, anything can happen in a day working for National Highways.
To find out what goes into keeping our roads safe, reporter Alex Langridge went out on patrol with traffic officers and spent a day in the South East control room.
Each morning teams of traffic officers from National Highways’ Coldharbour outstation in Aylesford[1] are assigned part of the strategic road network – the carriageways the organisation is responsible for – and sent out on patrol.
This involves driving up and down the carriageways, parking up at specific points along smart motorways, and responding to emergency calls.
Most of the time, drivers will not even see them. However, that does not mean the crews are sitting idle.
Callum Harkness, who is team manager at the station in Coldharbour Lane, said: “We could be doing six or seven jobs a day but you do not tend to see us. You would be really surprised.
“A lot of people see us on the side of the road or at strategic park-up points and think we are not doing anything.
“Where we sit, where we respond and how we deal with incidents is data-driven so sitting on the side of the road does not mean we are not doing anything.
“We are sitting there for a reason. We might be backing up another unit, waiting for a job, or sitting at a point where lots of incidents have happened before.
“That is why we are there – to respond to those incidents as well as actively patrolling.”
This week, I donned a yellow and orange hi-vis jacket and joined Callum and traffic officer Nick Sivell for a few hours patrolling the M25, M2 and M20.
We were ready for anything as the crews can be called out to any kind of incident including crashes, overturned or broken down vehicles, debris and animals on the road, and theoretically could be sent anywhere in the country.
They explained that their role is to keep the carriageway open and traffic flowing safely and this can include a rolling traffic block to slow motorists down to a full motorway closure.
Often, they are the first person on the scene of an accident.
Callum, who has worked for the organisation for five years, added: “The safest way to close a live lane is with a roadblock. If you can make a sterile area around the incident that is easier.
“Our first response is to stop the traffic to make it safe, but we are not an emergency service.
“We are here for safety, to keep the motorways open and running as best we can.”
Nick added: “People think we are closing roads for the sake of it but there is always a good reason and we are always pushing to get it open again.”
While we were out, the officers were called to reports of debris along the M2 between junctions 3 and 2, however, as it was not known exactly where it was they needed to use a roadblock to slow traffic down before stopping it.
It turned out to be a loose lorry strap in the middle of the road, and although it did not look like much, Nick said it could have had consequences if not removed.
He explained if a motorbike were to drive over it, it could have got caught up in its wheels or could have punctured a vehicle's tyre leading to an accident further along their journey.
An hour later, we were patrolling and came across a broken-down van on Blue Bell Hill which was blocking a lane off the roundabout.
The officers spoke to the driver who said he had already made arrangements.
Callum explained that recovery companies will not come to a vehicle stopped in a live lane so it is down to National Highways to move it to a place of safety which is determined by the officers.
In this case, we towed – known as carriageway clearing – the van to a disused slip road so it was not blocking the carriageway.
The manager added: “We advise members of the public that if their vehicle has broken down, they should get over to the left. If there is a hard shoulder use that or use lane one.
“They should then get behind the barrier, face oncoming traffic and dial 999 telling the police exactly where you are.
“We work very closely with the force and they will respond or will tell us and we will respond to assist.”
The South East is one of the busiest traffic regions and in Kent common issues traffic officers have to deal with are HGV accidents, freight traffic such as Operation Brock, weather and animals.
When Operation Brock is in progress[2], the Coldharbour outstation patrols deal with the congestion as “best they can".
One of the biggest challenges Nick and Callum said they have faced was when France closed its borders during the pandemic causing lorries to queue for three days.[3]
But officers also have more obscure issues to deal with, such as protestors hanging from the gantries[4] of the Dartford Crossing[5] or a family of swans landing on the M20.
Nick added: “I have seen every animal you can imagine.”
He said he has had to herd bulls off the carriageway along with other drivers and has seen buzzards, owls, ducklings and even snakes and tortoises try to cross the road.
Nick, who has been a traffic officer for 19 years, said another issue is trusting the public to obey the road signs and lane closures.
He added: “They really need to be watching where they are going and taking a lot more care. Drivers should be abiding by the signs and signals.
“They are there to help them get home safely and are not there for the sake of it. It is because something is happening and they need to be aware.
“With our job, we see some quite serious things and everybody wants to go home at the end of the day.”
The South East Regional Control Centre, in Godstone, Surrey, is responsible for setting the speed limits, road closures and other traffic messages along the road.
The teams based here are the people behind the scenes who scour CCTV to monitor incidents, answer calls, and send out patrols.
If a motorist calls in an incident to the police, the force will send a report to the control centre. They will verify it by looking at video footage and then organise officers and signage.
While I was there, the team was able to stop traffic, arrange contractors and fill in a pothole within half an hour of receiving the call.
They also had patrols on the scene of a broken-down vehicle within two minutes as it was flagged by stopped vehicle detection radar units along a smart motorway[6].
Operations manager Mark Hallett explained that the handlers in the control room are continually monitoring CCTV along smart motorways.
Most of the roads also have a MIDAS (Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling) loop which detects slow traffic and will alert handlers to this.
The team manager at the control centre, Andy French, said traffic is often slowed so teams can clear an incident without having to stop it completely.
However, in some cases, they do need to close the road but it is not a decision made lightly.
He added: “No one is here to make your life difficult, we want to make the motorways move as smoothly as possible.”
National Highways came about after an incident on the M11 in Essex where people were trapped for several hours in the snow. It was decided a service needed to be set up to look after the major roads.
Formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, it is a government company which plans, designs, builds, operates and maintains England’s motorways and major A roads, known as the strategic road network.
It manages and improves that network to make journeys safer, smoother and more reliable.
But there is some simple advice all drivers can follow to make life easier and safer for everyone.
If you get into trouble on a motorway, try and exit at the next junction but if not possible go left.
Once you have pulled over onto the hard shoulder or emergency space[7], call National Highways on 0300 1235000, then a breakdown provider for help.
Drivers travelling at 60mph will typically pass a safe place to stop no more than every 90 seconds.
References
- ^ Aylesford (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ Operation Brock is in progress (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ causing lorries to queue for three days. (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ protestors hanging from the gantries (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ Dartford Crossing (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ smart motorway (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ emergency space (www.kentonline.co.uk)