Enhanced Mobile Carriageway Closure

Enhanced Mobile Carriageway Closure (EMCC) is an approach that protects the road workers and the customers during the installation and removal of temporary traffic management. The development, testing and pilot of EMCC was undertaken on the A1 Scotswood to North Brunton scheme before any other scheme as a trial.

The A1 Birtley to Coal House scheme now also uses EMCC. The contractors worked collaboratively to develop and introduce EMCC and won the National Highways Innovation Award and the National Highways Overall Chairman’s Award .

EMCC is a new technique which has been accepted by National Highways and is soon to be available to traffic management providers for creating traffic-free environments for short periods of time on carriageways to support more agile delivery methods. This technique, which has been widely adopted by the industry, came about through collaboration and a determination to do things differently. EMCC had been introduced using vehicles that display an authorised sign to take control of traffic and have a digital incursion warning system.

Using this method has the following benefits:

• No requirement for rolling roadblock support from the network
• Certainty around start times during installation and removal of temporary traffic management
• Maximises working window for the contractor as the method is quicker
• Increased safety for the road workers and the customers
• Reduced requirement for carriageway closures
• Can be adopted by different schemes and used regionally and nationally.