HALOGEN is the cen­tral source for High­ways Agency Traf­fic Man­age­ment Sys­tems (HATMS) logged data. It records set­ting, state change and fault infor­ma­tion for sig­nals, signs and emer­gency road­side tele­phones on England’s motor­way network.

Data from HALOGEN can be used by regional main­te­nance con­trac­tors to detect fail­ures of road­side equip­ment within their area of oper­a­tion. If you are involved in the devel­op­ment and test­ing of log­ging equip­ment used on the motor­way net­work, you can use the HALOGEN test envi­ron­ment as part of your accep­tance test­ing procedures.

A range of stan­dard and cus­tom reports are avail­able to reg­is­tered HALOGEN users. It is also pos­si­ble to access HALOGEN data in real time through soft­ware appli­ca­tions, web­sites or by inte­grat­ing it within your own systems.

This guide pro­vides an overview of HALOGEN and describes the dif­fer­ent ways you can access logged data. It explains how you can apply to become a reg­is­tered user and how to get tech­ni­cal support.

What HALOGEN is and what you can use it for

HALOGEN is the cen­tral ser­vice for log­ging data from the High­ways Agency Traf­fic Man­age­ment Sys­tem (HATMS). The data includes set­tings for matrix and vari­able mes­sage signs, emer­gency road­side tele­phone and equip­ment faults, and the loca­tions of equip­ment on the motor­way net­work in England.

HALOGEN is man­aged by Mott Mac­Don­ald Ltd for the High­ways Agency. Its main users are the High­ways Agency’s net­work of seven Regional Con­trol Cen­tres (RCCs) in Eng­land. Each RCC uses logged data to mea­sure and mon­i­tor the per­for­mance of the equip­ment deployed on the motor­way net­work. This helps them respond quickly and effec­tively to traf­fic inci­dents, and make best use of the road network.

The High­ways Agency encour­ages regional main­te­nance con­trac­tors (RMCs) to use HALOGEN to mon­i­tor road­side equip­ment fail­ures within their area of oper­a­tion. One way of doing is to use the Road­side Fault Dis­play ser­vice. This is a sim­ple, low-bandwidth web­site that can be accessed by RMCs at the road­side using mobile inter­net devices or note­book PCs.

You can access data from HALOGEN either in his­toric form — through the Web Reporter appli­ca­tion — or in real time, using soft­ware appli­ca­tions such as the HALOGEN Browser, web­sites or data inter­faces. Only reg­is­tered users can access HALOGEN data. Appli­ca­tions for reg­is­tra­tion must be made to the High­ways Agency. See the page in this guide on how to become a reg­is­tered user of HALOGEN.

A HALOGEN test envi­ron­ment is avail­able. This can be used by con­trac­tors or other organ­i­sa­tions involved in bring­ing new or upgraded equip­ment into ser­vice, as part of their devel­op­ment and test­ing procedures.