Astucia guiding the way on the M25

UK based company Astucia are helping to improve driving conditions on the M25 in Surrey, with the installation of around four and a half thousand SolarLite road studs.

The installation of solar powered embedded road studs is part of a project by Mouchel which is designed to help improve visibility. This covers a section of the motorway that unusually lacks street lighting, this increases the potential risk for night time accidents.

The installation on both carriageways of the stretch from Clacket Lane Services to Junction 6 took place during August.  The Solar Powered road studs contain a Light Emitting Diode (LED) which automatically illuminates during the hours of darkness to provide up to 1,000 metres visibility, ten times greater than that of the traditional retro-reflective “cats eye” road stud.

The studs are used in locations around the world to help increase visibility and thus reduce KSI (Killed and Seriously Injured) rates.  Their success is being heralded from Norfolk to South Africa with an average reduction of 70% on night time accidents.

The installation is further to a section between the M2 and M20 which has had SolarLite studs installed for a number of years and has successfully guided motorists in a similar situation from an area containing street lighting into an area which is not lit.

Installing further street lighting columns on the motorway would have incurred significant cost in both installation and ongoing energy bills, whilst the use of Astucia SolarLite road studs presents just the fraction of this cost and does not require ongoing funding due to the use of free solar energy.

The Project Manager from Mouchel commented “We are very pleased with the brightness and effect of the Astucia studs and we are confident that this enhanced delineation will have a positive effect on the safety and night time road environment on the M25.”