Providing safe refuges for over 120,000 daily southeast commuters with the M25 NEAR Scheme

The UK Government committed to add over 150 more Emergency Areas across various motorways across the country. The National Emergency Area Retrofit (NEAR) scheme is set out to enhance safety on all-lane running smart motorways, ensuring the availability of safe havens for motorists in distress across stretches of the motorway without a hard shoulder.

McCann was awarded a multi-disciplinary contract as part of the NEAR programme, a critical safety initiative led by National Highways under the wider Smart Motorway Programme Alliance (SMP Alliance). Over the past few years, McCann have undertaken works on Emergency Areas situated on the M5, M1, M62, and M27 to name a few.

As a key strategic partner within the SMP Alliance, McCann was entrusted with the delivery of Civil Engineering, Lighting, Signage & Technology packages across 24 Emergency Area locations on the M25 between junctions 23 and 27, works included:

Civil Engineering:

• 60,000t of cut and fill operations
• 539m3 concrete
• 3m of footways, and 30m of access steps
• 100m2 of slab retaining walls
• 2000t topsoiling
• 600m of combined kerb drainage
• 48 catchpits
• 500m of carrier drains and 1200m of filter drains
• 8 slot drain connections
• 4 Grasscrete laybys.

 

Technology Infrastructure:

• 6000m ducting
• 92 chambers
• 12 CCTV sites
• 4 message signs
• Emergency Roadside Telephones (ERTs)
• 132 Stop Vehicle Detection (SVD) systems

 

Lighting & Signage:

• 21 lighting columns and lanterns
• 200 traffic signs
• 36km of associated cabling

The works on the M25 commenced in July 2024 and were completed on time and within the scope, ready to open for traffic by April 2025. This is no small feat for a project that included executing major civil works safely whilst keeping live traffic running and minimising disruptions to one of the UK’s busiest strategic roads.

Sangeetha Senthilkumar, Procurement Manager at Balfour Beatty, commented on McCann’s work on this project, saying, “We had a critical gap in our M25 NEAR scheme delivery, and McCann stepped in seamlessly to provide the expertise and support we needed for Drainage package. Their ability to quickly adapt, problem-solve, and deliver high-quality work under tight deadlines was invaluable. Not only did they meet our expectations, but they also went above and beyond to ensure the project stayed on track. Their professionalism, skill, and dedication made a significant impact to all our programme of works within SMA in Drainage, earthworks, and technology workstream. Beyond their technical contributions, McCanns has been a great supporter of the Alliance and actively involved in all our initiatives i.e. wellbeing etc. Their dedication, collaboration, and commitment to shared goals have made a significant impact.”

Going above and beyond during the early design stages.

As part of the collaborative process, McCann made several design suggestions, notably for the new drainage system pipe levels; the original design had many breakpoints, thus, the team suggested level changes to give the drainage pipes a smooth, constant slope along the long pipes.

McCann developed a bespoke drainage solution for the delivery of this project by designing and implementing “top hats,” custom-made attachments ensuring integration between new and existing drainage systems, preventing unnecessary rework. In addition to this, McCann developed an in-house temporary earthworks design for Bays 11 and 6, which was later incorporated into the permanent design, streamlining the construction process and reducing resource demands.

Another adopted suggestion was developed during the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) stage, McCann suggested using excavators with integrated GPS for all earthworks on the project; this allowed for greater accuracy and precision grading as opposed to traditional methods such as batter rails and profile boards, significantly reducing manual setting-out requirements.

At the ECI stage, McCann also suggested the introduction of an additional chamber adjacent to the existing chamber at Bay 11, located in the middle of the hard shoulder. By introducing the additional chamber, McCann were able to do a single connection between the new drainage and the existing drainage. This eliminated the need to remove a large section of the existing hard shoulder around the existing chamber, therefore, re-instating the hard shoulder. This value engineering proposal has saved the project a minimum of 3 weeks of weeks’ worth of work and a large quantity of materials and resources, also eliminating the need to work near the Vario guard and live traffic.

Don’t just take our word for it

“McCanns have been one of the key supply partners working on the NEAR South project and have been instrumental in achieving the safe and successful delivery of the programme of works.

Responsible for delivering the scope of works, including Earthworks, Drainage, Technology Infrastructure and Technology commissioning on two sections of the M25, McCanns have been heavily involved throughout the entire construction phase and actively supported in developing the overall delivery strategy for the project.

In order to meet the critical target dates, it required a huge amount of dedication from the team and meticulous collaboration from all parties; this was constantly demonstrated by McCanns and was evident throughout the dayshift and nightshift operations that spanned a 10-month period.

The team provided by McCanns on the NEAR South project were very professional and worked seamlessly with other supply partners, which supported in achieving the project’s aspiration of creating a ‘one team’ approach. When required, McCanns actively assisted the NEAR south project in providing resources to deliver scope on other sections of the overall project, working towards the common goal of achieving the critical target dates.

The quality of work that has been delivered by McCanns has been completed to a very high standard, and given the fast-paced programme, this is impressive, but even more so that it has also been delivered with a very high standard of safety being maintained throughout the delivery.”

Alan Crabb | Production Director | SMP Alliance

 

McCann Ltd is a leading civil and electrical engineering construction company operating throughout the UK on major highways and infrastructure projects for public and private sector clients. Our team of experts provide clients with integrated infrastructure solutions that meet business needs and exceed expectations.

 

*Total average of vehicles commuting daily clockwise and anticlockwise on M25 J23-27 in 2018 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/m25-junction-23-to-27-third-year-evaluation-report

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