Each day at National Highways is never the same; each day brings its own challenges and rewards.

Context of Emergency Planning in the South-West region

The South-West region contains some of the UK's most strategically important and heavily used motorways and major A-roads. With 620 miles of strategic routes facilitating local communities, freight, emergency services, connecting international airports and docks, and 21.4 million annual visitors, the region requires a strong, well-coordinated emergency planning approach to keep people and the network safe and moving. This article explains how we develop, manage, and deliver emergency planning across the region.

How Emergency Planning Works in Practice

At National Highways we have many responsibilities and a core focus to our organisation is how we engage and maintain our stakeholder relationships. National Highways follows the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP), which shares situational awareness and joint decision-making across emergency responders. This ensures seamless cooperation among police, fire, ambulance, local authorities, National Highways teams and more. 

South-West Resilience Team are responsible for:

• Events planning
• Producing Operational Orders for events, abnormal load movements and scheme works
• Collaboration through multi-agency meetings
• Debriefing (internally & multi-agency) to identify good areas of practice & highlight lessons learnt, ensuring continuous improvement
• Developing and reviewing emergency plans (risk-specific planning, exercising, multi-agency coordination, and operational planning. Regular exercises and reviews ensure these plans remain efficient and current).

Regional Operations Centres (ROC) and Frontline Traffic Officers

The South-West Regional Operations Centre (ROC) monitors the network, coordinates responses, and works with the National Traffic Operations Centre to maintain real-time awareness during emergencies. Our traffic Officers are often first on the scene when incidents occur; deploying emergency traffic management, clearing debris, supporting emergency services, and ensuring the safe operation of our roads, on a 24/7 hour basis.

National Highways strive to provide timely and accurate communication through our web page, social media, road signage, and coordinated updates from control rooms. This ensures road users can make informed decisions during emergencies and avoid disruptions. 

The future of Resilience and Emergency Planning at National Highways

We will continue to improve processes, become more actively involved in multi-agency exercises, and continue to review and update existing emergency plans. Through structured processes and continual improvement, National Highways ensures a resilient and safe strategic road network.