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"Digital transformation will only deliver lasting value when technology, people, standards and procurement move forward together."
The highways sector has no shortage of ambition. Digital twins, artificial intelligence, connected corridors and predictive operations are all moving rapidly from conference presentations into practical trials. Yet the real measure of progress is not how many pilots can be launched. It is whether successful ideas can become dependable tools used every day across national and local networks.
That distinction sat at the heart of a discussion with Alistair Gollop at the Highways UK Keynote Panel bringing together Richard Pedley, Chief Digital and Information Officer at National Highways; Richard Fenwick, Director of Highways at Warwickshire County Council; Darren Capes, President of the IHE and Head of Road Infrastructure Technology at the Department for Transport; Rachel Keane, Chief Data Inspirer at Dig Data; and Ramin Massoumi, Global President of Mobility at Arcadis.
The discussion exposed a familiar gap between innovation and deployment. Promising technology often performs well within a controlled trial, only to encounter legacy systems, fragmented data, cautious procurement, constrained budgets and organisations that lack the capacity to adopt it. Closing that gap demands more than better technology. It requires a clearer understanding of what scale means from the outset.
Richard Pedley described an industry suffering from what he called “pilotitis”. Failure at an early stage can be valuable, but too many pilots are conceived without sufficient thought about how they will be maintained, supported and expanded if they succeed. Standards and boundaries may appear restrictive in an innovation environment, yet they create the common foundations needed for a solution to land successfully and remain affordable.
This is particularly important within a complex organisation such as National Highways, where digital architecture has developed over many years. Simplifying that estate, selecting appropriate platforms and rationalising a landscape containing around 2,000 digital standards are substantial tasks. They are also essential if the supply chain is to understand what it must build against and how new services will operate alongside existing systems.
Capability on the client side matters just as much. An organisation cannot test the claims made for artificial intelligence, assure its performance or build public trust unless it understands what is being delivered. Stronger digital literacy across leadership therefore becomes a practical requirement rather than a fashionable aspiration.
Network-wide deployment also depends on information moving reliably between organisations and systems. Pedley argued that transport needs a national data standard, developed through collaboration with the Department for Transport and the wider sector. Without a common reference point, authorities and suppliers must repeatedly create interfaces between incompatible datasets. That adds cost, complexity and another reason for stretched organisations to step away from innovation.
The attraction of common standards is not standardisation for its own sake. It is the ability to stop solving the same integration problem repeatedly and concentrate resources on services that improve safety, efficiency and the experience of road users. Interoperability is what allows a useful idea in one place to become a viable service elsewhere.
For local government, the barriers can be more immediate. Richard Fenwick explained how the centralisation of IT, procurement and legal functions can bring benefits while also creating distance from specialist services such as highways. A modest pilot may struggle to gain traction when the people who understand the operational need do not have the necessary data or technology skills, while those holding that expertise sit elsewhere in the organisation.
Better collaboration between corporate and highways teams is part of the answer, although Fenwick also made the case for embedding digital and data capability within engineering roles. Leaders need enough knowledge to identify opportunities, ask informed questions and distinguish meaningful applications from hype. That includes recognising that artificial intelligence is broader than generative tools. Machine learning, edge processing and video analytics are already present in operational equipment, often without being labelled prominently as AI.
There is also a danger in reaching for advanced systems before mastering established tools. Some organisations are still not making effective use of Excel or Power BI, even as expectations grow around digital twins and artificial intelligence. The challenge is to improve today’s practice while retaining a clear view of what is coming next.
Collaboration between neighbouring authorities could reduce some of these pressures. Shared learning, systems and contracts may give good ideas a better chance of surviving the organisational hurdles that too often cause them to disappear. Private-sector partners can support that process by understanding the realities of government, politics and data sharing rather than treating every authority as an entirely separate market.
Darren Capes offered a useful reminder that technology will not arrive as a separate box placed alongside conventional highways work. It is already blending into established activities. Asphalt, drainage, structures and electrical systems will continue to require traditional engineering expertise, but the people working with them will increasingly need to understand data, modelling and AI-assisted equipment.
A modern gritter illustrates the point neatly. It may look like a familiar highways vehicle, yet cameras, video analytics and intelligent control can influence how salt is spread and how dosing rates are managed. Digital capability is no longer confined to specialist offices. It is becoming part of roles across the operational workforce.
Professional institutions have an important role in shaping that transition. Academic courses, apprenticeships, accreditation routes and short qualifications must recognise a more diverse range of entrants and blend technology with established engineering disciplines. Someone arriving with a data-focused degree should be able to see a credible route into highways engineering and professional recognition.
Competition for digital talent makes that pathway especially important. Highways cannot always match the salaries offered by finance, defence or other technology-intensive sectors, but it can offer work with visible social purpose. Transport supports safer communities, economic opportunity, accessibility and the response to climate change. The sector needs to tell that story with far greater confidence.
Rachel Keane argued that awareness must begin while young people are still making choices about subjects and qualifications. Too many associate transport careers only with drivers and operational roles, without seeing the data analysis, modelling, engineering and creative problem-solving behind the services they use.
Project Route is intended to change that perception through relatable challenges and contact with people already working in the industry. Its ambitions include engaging at least 10,000 young people during the next academic year, awarding at least 5,000 work-experience certificates and promoting 100 early-talent pathways. Activities are designed for different age groups, ranging from a bus-route detective exercise to rail journey planning and questions about trust in autonomous vehicles.
The underlying lesson is that data must be made tangible. A previous challenge asked younger pupils to use information to decide where a wildlife bridge should be built so that hedgehogs could cross a road. It connected an unfamiliar career area to a recognisable problem and showed that data is not merely something consumed by a mobile phone. It is a resource for understanding the world and making better decisions.
Educators also need support to connect classroom subjects with real transport applications. Relatable role models, virtual events and practical resources can reveal a sector that is far more varied than many pupils or careers advisers realise. Giving transport a stronger voice at these formative stages is essential if the industry wants to widen its future talent pool.
Workforce and data issues are closely linked to the way innovation is bought. Drawing on his international experience, Ramin Massoumi identified three recurring problems. Organisations procure a particular technology even though technologies evolve quickly, use linear processes designed for conventional infrastructure projects, and assume that their requirements are so unique that only a bespoke solution will work.
The result is often an expensive, high-risk pilot that cannot readily be reused elsewhere. Failure then damages confidence in the broader approach, even when the underlying idea remains sound. A better starting point is to define the outcome. An authority might want faster and more accurate pavement inspections or safer junctions. Those needs should become the requirement, leaving industry room to propose solutions that can evolve and be applied across several clients or locations.
Outcome-led procurement does not mean abandoning assurance or accepting uncontrolled risk. Instead, it avoids specifications so detailed that they prescribe every component before the market has had an opportunity to innovate. Commercial models should support learning, adaptation and shared risk throughout the life of a service.
When asked to identify the single barrier they would remove, the panellists approached the issue from different directions. Pedley prioritised digital literacy in leadership. Fenwick widened that into organisational culture and the willingness to challenge established practice. Capes called for stronger learning from sectors such as defence, banking and logistics, where many data and technology problems have already been addressed. Massoumi returned to procurement and its focus on outcomes, while Keane emphasised the need to inspire young people before crucial career decisions are made.
These answers are not competing solutions. They describe an interconnected system. Informed leaders are better able to establish useful standards and support proportionate risk. Skilled teams can specify, test and maintain services with confidence. Shared data makes solutions portable, while flexible procurement gives suppliers space to respond to real operational needs. A visible and purposeful career proposition brings new capability into the sector.
The highways industry is right to experiment, but a successful pilot should be the beginning of a service rather than the end of a project. Progress will depend on planning for scale early, simplifying the environment into which technology must fit and investing in the people who will operate it. When technology, governance, commercial thinking and capability are aligned, digital innovation can finally move beyond the trial stage and become part of the dependable everyday operation of our road networks.
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