The unseen team who can watch our every move on the roads without us even knowing

"Most people don't think that we are here"

17:53, 18 May 2025

Inside the huge control room

Inside a bustling hub off the M6 near Newton-le-Willows is a 24-hour control room that never sleeps; with huge screens displaying the north west's busy road network in real-time.

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Speaking into headsets, tapping away on keyboards and sat behind computer screens are an unseen team who are able to watch our every move on the roads - without us even knowing.

Specialist incident teams are on hand 365 days a year to monitor the motorways, from responding to major incidents and collisions, to inputting diversions or temporary speed measures, all remotely and with the click of a few buttons. Cameras covering every angle are on a constant rotation.

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But it's no mean feat, and no day is ever the same, with Highways England's North West branch taking ownership of the 530 mile highway network from as far as Carlisle to Knutsford, the edges of the Peak District, and everywhere in between.

Huge screens display real-time camera updates (Image: Manchester Evening News)Article continues below

This includes the entirety of the M60 [2], the M62 [3] from J22, the M6 between junctions 16 to 44, the M602, M61, M66, M67 and M65 - a vast area which is home to huge stadiums like Anfield and Old Trafford [4], major international airports and packed-out shopping centres like Cheshire Oaks and the Trafford Centre.

The team, who work from their main control hub, all have a part to play in ensuring the motorways run as smoothly as possible, despite millions of journeys every day. And, incident coordinators rapidly work with local authorities, police and other emergency services to respond to any incidents within minutes.

It's a job that never stops and is around the clock, yet is often overlooked and not given a seconds thought by the hundreds of thousands of vehicles and their drivers who are simply trying to get from A to B.

The high-tech regional control centre, based in Merseyside, dispatches traffic highways officers, responds to incidents and liaises with the appropriate bodies, alters speed limits, manages road and lane closures and even works alongside the Met Office to forward plan for extreme weather [5] conditions and issue travel guidance.

Speaking about their work as the M.E.N toured the control room, Operations Manager Dee Murray, told of how traffic officers deal with processing incidents on the network's motorways.

We visited the regional operations centre(Image: Manchester Evening News)

"On a busier day, when we have lots of small incidents, we need at least one patrol out on the ground," he explained.

"It's always better for us to have patrol officers at the scene, whether that be to move debris, or close a lane if a car has broken down or if a HGV is having it's tyre changed, for example.

"The smaller incidents do tend to clear quicker, but with reduced speed limits we can alert drivers well in advance so that they can prepare and aren't suddenly hit by traffic.

We set the slower speeds initially as a precaution when we get a report, to warn people.

"The first thing they have to do is make it safe, which could be a road block or manually stopping traffic if its slow. If they stop it quickly, nothing further can happen.

"This actually reduces the delays, because if a huge wave of traffic suddenly hit lane closures and had to move over one by one, people would actually be waiting much longer."

When an incident is reported, Dee explained how patrolling Highways officers are usually first on the scene and are able to quickly stop traffic and close off multiple lanes while liaising with control room teams in a matter of seconds. The amount of on-the-ground patrols mean a team is never far away.

All traffic and congestion is managed in real-time(Image: James Maloney/Lancs Live)

This allows for them to assess the severity of a situation, such as a serious collision, and allow emergency services to get through using the hard shoulder.

And in the background, Operational Managers have frequent silver-level calls with police, fire crews and local authorities in the event of a major incident, such as a serious injury or fatal crash, where constant updates are fed back to teams on the ground managing traffic.

And the constant camera stream also means that impatient hard-shoulder speeders flouting the lane closures are always seen and reported.

"The incident control team speak directly to crews on radios," he explained. "Then we have teams who set the appropriate signals in real time, such as speed or lane closures - but there is a lot of cross over.

"We have access to all the cameras which cover the whole network in real time to our feed.

This allows us to constantly monitor the network, as certain closures in one area can then cause a knock-on effect elsewhere, so we also liaise with North East and West Midland regional centres.

Inside the control room at Highways England North West(Image: Manchester Evening News)

"We try to never stop traffic and want to always keep it moving where we can. This is why we clearly signpost diversions or have warnings about incidents or speed limits with good notice."

One of the most time-consuming jobs, which has in recent months resulted in major overnight closures, are diesel or oil spillages and extensive barrier damages caused by collisions, Dee explained. Yet, their quick-thinking action means its often business as usual by the next day, even if it means motorists becoming stuck in hours-long closures initially.

"If we have a carriageway that has been badly affected, we can have several hundred metres of the road covered in oil, which seeps into the surface," he said.

"But then by the next day it's running as normal again as if nothing ever happened.

We are able to dispatch teams and get hold of the right resources quickly.

"What motorists often don't see is that if we don't take that action, even if it means people being stuck in closures for a few hours, it could've been a lot longer. We always appreciate that nobody wants to be stuck and how frustrating it is, especially if its a hot or cold day, and they have children in the car, but safety is always our priority.

"Fixing the work greatly reduces the amount of time people would be stuck and keeps things moving. We try to resurface or carry out repairs overnight where it has less impact."

The Highways team are always monitoring the region's motorways(Image: Getty Images)

As well as the human teams monitoring the motorways, there is a hidden underground network of sensors that are able to detect and measure traffic flow to automatically amend the flashing digital displays overhead.

MIDAS (Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling) is able to detect queuing traffic by measuring vehicle speed and volume.

They are designed to alert the local regional control centre to traffic flow and average speeds, and set variable message signs and advisory speed limits.

This, Dee explained, is often why motorists find themselves cruising slowly through lower variable speed limits before then speeding up again minutes later, with no clear visual explanation as to why.

Originally installed along the congested western stretch of the M25 motorway, much of the M60 motorway around Manchester and the Birmingham box (M6, M5 and M42), the technology has been installed on all but the most minor stretches of the UK motorway.

The Manchester Evening News also learnt about the extent of planning that goes into making sure people's journeys are as seamless as possible. This also includes liaising with the likes of Google Maps and Apple Maps satnav services to provide real-time and accurate updates.

Year-round, Highways teams work with major event organisers, venues and even the Met Office, ahead of huge events or extreme weather conditions - and issue appropriate guidance to drivers in a bid to kerb traffic chaos and, in turn, collisions.

"We always plan ahead of big bank holidays and the likes of Easter [6] and Christmas [7], when we know it will be busy. We've done this long enough to know Good Friday will be a big getaway day, for example," Dee said.

"Everything is always in place, by making sure we up the patrols on the roads and give out a lot more advice about being wary of travel through social media channels, articles and on the radio.

But any weekend can suddenly become busy and we are always ready.

"We always make sure we instantly let people know what's going on, so that way people can avoid journeys and be aware of what to do. In Manchester, we work with TfGM and events organisers for things like festivals and sports games.

"For example, we have Parklife and Oasis coming up. Suddenly at midnight, there can be a rush-hours worth of traffic which takes a lot of resources.

We work with police to see how it will affect the motorway network, but nobody sees the organising that goes on behind the scenes.

"For major holidays, we take a lot of roadworks off for example, and publish as much as possible about possible delays so people can consider how they travel.

"And over winter, we have a winter maintenance programme where we also run the gritters out of here, and work with the Met Office on the best places to go. Just after Christmas there was a lot of rain, then wind, and then some snow - but we see it coming and have a plan ten days before. The key thing is always telling people and preventing them being caught in it."

Summing it up, Dee said: "Most people don't think that we are here or don't think of where all this comes from."

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References

^ HERE (chat.whatsapp.com)
^ M60 (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ M62 (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Trafford (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ weather (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Easter (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Christmas (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ by clicking here and signing up for MEN Daily News. (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ sign up for that here. (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Click here (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Coronation Street (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ downloading the Manchester Evening News app here, (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ [email protected] (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)