About us

We operate, maintain and improve the strategic road network in England.

This information page was withdrawn on

Highways Agency was replaced by Highways England in April 2015


This road network is around 4,300 miles long and is made up of motorways and trunk roads. View a map of the network.

While our network represents only 2 per cent of all roads in England by length, it carries a third of all traffic by mileage - and two thirds of all heavy goods traffic, making it the economic backbone of the country.

We also manage and help prevent incidents on England’s motorways through our Traffic Officer service.

Who we are

We have around 3,500 staff based in 7 offices around the country (Guildford, Bedford, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Exeter) and including a uniformed Traffic Officer service who serve in control centres and patrol key areas of the network.

We are supported by the National Traffic Information Service, which provides information to our National Traffic Operations Centre and our 7 regional control centres.

Our responsibilities

We are responsible for:

  • carrying out routine maintenance of roads, structures and technology to make the network safe, serviceable and reliable
  • undertaking large scale improvements through a programme of major schemes
  • making sure traffic can flow easily on major roads and motorways
  • managing and clearing incidents as quickly and safely as possible
  • setting and maintaining technical standards for roads

Our priorities

From 2013 to 2014 our priorities will be to:

  • support the government’s plans for economic growth by improving important transport links
  • increase the capacity of the major road networks specified in our business plan

By 2015, we want to be the world’s leading road operator.

Corporate information

Jobs and contracts