Future Highways Summit 2026
Insightful conversations, networking, and a deeper look into the future of highways management.
Watch the sessions
Setting a clear direction for the sector
Nick Smee, Causeway Technologies
Data ≠ Insight: Democratizing data-driven decision-making
Nick Bolton, Ordnance Survey
How Northumberland County Council digitally transformed with Causeway
Kris Westerby, Northumberland County Council
Our vision for Highways through CausewayOne
Nick Smee, Causeway Technologies
A single operational foundation for highways
Highways systems are often fragmented and disconnected, shaped by multiple vendors and tools that have evolved over time.
The workshop explored how CausewayOne provides a single operational foundation, connecting systems without replacing them and supporting decisions from a shared operational picture.
CausewayOne Asset Management
The asset management workshop focused on ongoing development across asset strategy and operations.
Enabled by CausewayOne’s connected foundations, the session covered Causeway Horizons integration, stronger links with Project Accounting, and AI support to reduce complexity and speed up day-to-day work.
CausewayOne Network: Better coordination
The Network session focused on improving how traffic regulation and street works work together.
Topics included the TTRO Hub and Portal, permanent TROs, and rebuilding street works workflows to support earlier visibility of risk, embedded compliance and more defensible decisions.
Shared data, automation and mobile working
The final session brought together geospatial data, automation and mobile capability.
The discussion focused on breaking down data silos, sharing geospatial layers from source, automating repetitive tasks and supporting mobile teams - helping information flow reliably between office and site and reducing everyday operational friction.
Why data alone does not deliver value
During the Summit, Nick Bolton, CEO of Ordnance Survey, highlighted a critical distinction for the sector:
data is not valuable in itself – insight is.
He emphasised that modern infrastructure decisions depend on data that is:
- Trusted and discoverable
- Connected across systems
- Accessible within the tools people already use
From our perspective at Causeway, this reinforces the need to move beyond isolated datasets and dashboards, and instead embed insight directly into operational workflows – where decisions are made every day.
Real-world transformation with Causeway
Northumberland County Council shared how using Causeway solutions has helped them move from fragmented working to more connected operations.
By bringing asset and network information together, they have been able to:
- Streamlining workflows across teams
- Improving visibility and consistency
- Reducing friction between planning and delivery
The key lesson: transformation succeeds when technology reflects how highways teams actually operate.
Our vision for modern highways operations
Our vision is a data-centric approach to highways management, where decisions are informed by live, connected information across all functions.
With CausewayOne, this means:
- Asset management, street works and network activity viewed together
- Operational insight available at the point of action
- Compliance and reporting built into everyday processes
The focus shifts from managing systems to managing outcomes.
The challenge facing highways today
Across the sector, highway authorities are under growing financial, regulatory and reputational pressure.
From our perspective, the biggest risk is not a lack of data – it is the fragmentation of systems, processes and responsibility.
Disconnected tools make it harder to:
- See what is really happening across the network
- Act with confidence under scrutiny
- Turn information into timely decisions
Moving from applications to a platform
We see a clear shift away from standalone applications towards platform-based working.
CausewayOne represents this change by:
- Connecting existing highways systems rather than replacing them
- Providing a single operational view across functions
- Supporting modernisation at a pace authorities can manage
This approach reduces risk while creating a stronger foundation for the future.
What matters most to authorities
Through our work with highway authorities, we consistently hear the same priorities:
- Making best use of limited budgets
- Supporting stretched teams
- Improving resilience, compliance and public trust
CausewayOne is designed to address these realities by enabling joined-up working, better visibility and more confident decision-making.
CausewayOne – a shared operational foundation
CausewayOne brings highways operations together on a shared, connected data foundation.
It enables authorities to:
- Work from a single operational view
- Join up workflows across teams and functions
- Embed insight directly into daily decision-making
For us, CausewayOne is about clarity, control and confidence – without adding unnecessary complexity.
