Ordnance Survey (OS) has launched a new mapping product that provides ‘the essential facts’ of roads and paths across Britain, which it developed with a £3m investment from the Government.
The OS MasterMap Highways Network, described as ‘the ultimate and authoritative road and transport management product’, aims to support street works planning and notification, and help professionals make informed decisions with asset management and route planning.
Andrew Jones (left) and Mark Le Page
OS said it provides, in a single data source, ‘the essential facts about the physical dimensions, accessibility and ownership of roads and paths, and who is responsible for maintaining them’.
This includes current and future roads under construction, and a complete turn-by-turn, navigable road network of Great Britain.
The product is the result of a £3m investment by The Department for Transport.
Roads minister Andrew Jones said: ‘This new and innovative digital map will help local authorities and utilities companies better plan how to route traffic and keep it moving during roadworks, minimising disruption and cutting unnecessary delays to motorists.’
OS said the product was developed by enhancing and integrating its high quality and accurate road network mapping with expert external data provided by 174 highways authorities, which was gathered and quality assured by GeoPlace LLP, a partnership between the Local Government Association and OS.
It also consulted with organisations from across the public sector and with utility companies.
Mark Le Page, products manager at OS, said: ‘The aim of our collaboration with the public sector and utilities has been to simplify their lives with a complete picture. To help them increase their productivity and profitability, and to drive their efficiencies through better decision making made on the back of one single source for current and accurate data that is relevant to their needs.
‘Having this information in one package should also reduce their costs associated with maintaining multiple datasets.’
Members of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) can sign up to download data under an evaluation licence. Commercial customers can buy the data on DVD as a national dataset.
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