How Derbyshire County Council is improving journeys and driver safety with Live Link

Derbyshire County Council (DCC) is responsible for keeping the public safe on over 3,000 miles of carriageways and ensuring the network continues to run as smoothly as possible, even during extreme weather events. Traffic Manager, James Adams, and his team are key in ensuring the impact on the network is communicated with the road user in as timely a way as possible.

The Challenge

Derbyshire is a county of great geographical and social contrast with both heavily built-up areas and large, sparsely populated rural expanses, including the famous Peak District National Park. Unfortunately, these rural landscapes and areas of natural beauty mean adverse weather conditions and emergency incidents are more common.  

Back in 2018, the “Beast from the East” hit Derbyshire with a tremendous amount of snow, forcing DCC to close many roads. With limited safe alternative routes in the area, this presented a real challenge for drivers trying to navigate the county and caused significant disruption.

A year later came the Whaley Bridge and Toddbrook Dam collapse.

James and his colleagues were informed of the incident by the Emergency Planning team and called into action. The collapse meant that all roads in and around the valley had to be closed off to ensure public safety. Not only did these roads have to be closed, but these closures then had to be urgently communicated out to residents and the travelling public.

At the time, this was an extremely difficult task and one of the biggest challenges was getting the closure information into navigation apps. While DCC, like many other councils, posts all road closures on its website and shares updates via Twitter, the Traffic team needed a way to communicate with drivers behind the wheel.

These weather events, alongside several floods in Derwent Valley and around the river Wye, prompted the Traffic Team to investigate a solution to help them tackle such emergencies.

The Solution