Revizto Supports SMP Alliance Further Improve Safety Across UK Highways
SMP Alliance has helped further improve road safety and driver confidence across the UK’s strategic road network by adding 138 more emergency areas across all lane running motorways as part of the National Emergency Area Retrofit (NEAR) Programme for National Highways. Revizto has played an important role during the design, construction and handover phases of the NEAR Programme, which was successfully and efficiently delivered on time and within funding.
Improving Safety and User Confidence
In 2021, part of the UK’s Parliamentary Transport Select Committee report on ‘The Rollout and Safety of Smart Motorways’ highlighted road user concerns about being able to find a safe place to stop in an emergency on all lane running (ALR) smart motorways, where the hard shoulder is permanently converted into a running lane for traffic. In response to this report, the UK Government committed £390m for National Highways to add over 150 more safe places to stop on existing ALR motorways in the form of the National Emergency Area Retrofit (NEAR) Programme.
SMP Alliance, a collaborative modern integrated enterprise made up of National Highways, Balfour Beatty, Costain, BMJV (the BAM / Morgan Sindall joint venture), WSP, Jacobs and Fluor, mobilized to deliver a vast majority of the programme – the Alliance was responsible for £362 million to deliver 138 emergency areas by 31 March 2025.
Efficient and powerful digital technologies were embraced to maximize collaboration and design and deliver at speed and scale to meet this ambitious goal. This approach not only helped the successful delivery, it earned SMP Alliance the Digital Collaboration of the Year Award at the 2025 Digital Construction Awards.
Revizto at the Heart of Design, Construction and Handover
With key sites widely spread across the North, Midlands, and South of England, seamless coordination between teams was critical to the NEAR Programme. Layer in live multi-lane traffic, constricted work sites, location dependent earthworks and a fixed, non-negotiable deadline, and the project became a high-pressure challenge that demanded precise planning and execution.
Revizto was central to this fast-moving, multi-site coordination. The platform allowed for four design teams to assess construction feasibility in real time, while off-site teams could instantly access the same model-based site information, staying fully aligned with on-site progress. Thanks to the information shared through the platform, design leads from each team could meet two to three times a week, arriving fully prepared and coordinated.
Each individual emergency area location had to be assessed not only for construction feasibility, but also for environmental impact and public safety. A total of 400 potential locations were carefully sifted through these requirements before 138 were selected and then grouped into 13 schemes for delivery by three regional teams (North, Midlands and South). With so many sites operating across the network simultaneously, careful planning was essential to avoid uneven workloads while minimizing disruption for road users.
We relied on Revizto from day one through to the final handover. During design, it brought all partners together to coordinate and validate buildable solutions. During construction, it streamlined technical reviews and made project information instantly accessible to every team, whether they were on-site or kilometers away. At handover, it was instrumental in verifying as-built models and integrating 3D spatial data to ensure accuracy. Having one intuitive platform that could add value at every stage of the project lifecycle made a real difference.
Associate Director of Information Management, Jacobs
Tag, Capture and Solve the Issue
By centralizing design data, identifying technical queries (TQs), and integrating point clouds and surveys, Revizto allowed teams to identify, tag, and assign issues directly within the 3D model. On-site staff could identify TQs and capture problems as they arose, while off-site engineers (across the UK and internationally) could immediately review, comment, and propose solutions. This tight loop of communication reduced delays and supported faster and more efficient decision-making.
During the handover phase, Revizto was pivotal in verifying that as-built models accurately reflected constructed assets. Site teams used the platform to confirm that assets were installed in the correct locations and that all asset data was properly tagged, while laser scans and point cloud surveys were imported to validate asset positions against the as-built models.
In addition, Revizto’s ease and accessibility ensured that all partners (regardless of their role or technical acumen/abilities) could view, understand, and comment on the same designs.
Different Approach for Each Emergency Area
Whether it’s on the M25 around London, the M1 near Sheffield or the M27 near Portsmouth, every construction area came with its own set of requirements. Adding to this, SMP Alliance had to work strictly within the existing highway boundaries, with no time or funding available to purchase or negotiate for land beyond them.
Therefore, when adapting the teams and requirements for each site, Revizto’s site information sharing made it fully transparent across all partners. In more challenging locations, such as steep embankments, significant geotechnical interventions were required, with extensive data captured and analyzed directly within the platform. If 20m high earthworks had to build out, it needed to be assessed correctly.
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Isolated silos and miscommunication would have cost the project massively, and we couldn’t let that happen with an unmovable deadline. Revizto gave us clarity and control, helping us pre-empt problems, share information between partners and ultimately avoid rework.
Associate Director of Information Management, Jacobs
