National Highways has unveiled a new design for motorway gantries that it hopes will prove harder for protesters to mount and use to cause disruption.
The renovated structures, which are expected to become the standard design in England from 2025, will have their maintenance steps hidden inside their pillars and will be more difficult to gain access to without authorisation.
The agency said this would make them “more resilient to trespassers”, but it stressed that “security issues did not form part of the original specification”.
Just Stop Oil activists scaled gantries above the M25 in November last year. Several stretches of the road were closed and arrests were made as members of the organisation protested against the climate emergency. One man, Jan Goodey, was handed a six-month sentence.
A spokesperson for the group said: “Just Stop Oil have always said the disruption will end immediately when the government agrees to end new oil and gas. Until then we look forward to the challenges the new gantry designs provide.”
National Highways launched a competition to replace the gantry designs last December, a month after the M25 protests.
The competition, run in conjunction with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), was launched as part of a wider plan to “beautify” the design of the country’s busiest roads. Design guidance published by National Highways last July included recommendations such as “minimising clutter”, providing “clues” about how to drive, being sensitive to the local landscape and improving environmental sustainability. Entries were not expected to alter the technology that sits behind gantries.
National Highways said: “Although security issues did not form part of the original specification, the new design will be more resilient to trespassers due to entry being concealed within the pillars, making it more difficult to access without authorisation.”
The successful concept was produced by the London-based architecture company Useful Studio and chosen for its “simplicity and elegance”.
National Highways’ executive director for operations, Duncan Smith, said: “This is a great opportunity for us to develop a more streamlined, elegant and consistent visual appearance for roadside gantries to enhance drivers’ experience when driving on England’s motorways and major A-roads.
“Existing designs tend to emphasise function over form. Our challenge is to create innovative structures that can accommodate the required signage and equipment that are more sympathetic to the environment.”
The new gantries will have a lower carbon footprint than the current designs as they will use less steel.
Jonathan McDowell, an RIBA architect adviser, said: “It is very encouraging that National Highways is actively engaging the design community in helping to improve the design of these ubiquitous but cumbersome parts of the motorway experience. We enjoyed seeing a wide range of interesting ideas, including those which challenged National Highways’ current practices.”
During last November’s protests, Just Stop Oil banners were draped from the overhead road structures. National Highways said at the time that the structures need “a degree of accessibility” for maintenance crews.
