The Route tool uses the public OSRM (Open Source Routing Machine) API to calculate the shortest driving path between two or more waypoints, snapped to the road network.

1. Click Route in the top navigation to activate the tool. The panel will appear above the map.
2. Click on the map to place waypoints — you need at least 2.
3. The route line and total chainage (distance in metres and km) will update automatically with each new waypoint.
4. Click Clear Route to remove all waypoints and start again — the tool stays active so you can begin a new route immediately.
5. Press ESC or click the Route button again to exit the tool and restore normal map interaction.

Only absolute distance is shown — no travel time or ETA is calculated. This is intentional for engineering and chainage use cases.

The public OSRM demo server (router.project-osrm.org) is used. It has no guaranteed uptime SLA. For production use, host your own OSRM instance.

The Measure tool draws a straight-line polyline across the map and shows cumulative distance in real time as you move the cursor.

1. Click Measure in the top navigation to activate.
2. Click on the map to place points — a live tooltip follows your cursor showing the cumulative distance.
3. Double-click to finish the line.
4. Click Clear to reset the line — the tool stays active so you can immediately begin a new measurement.
5. Press ESC or click the Measure button again to exit the tool and restore normal map interaction.

Distances use the Haversine formula (spherical Earth model), which is accurate to within 0.3% for UK distances.

All coordinate pins logged in the session can be exported in four formats via the Export dropdown in the header.

Comma-separated values including Name, OS Grid (10-fig and 6-fig), Easting, Northing, Latitude, and Longitude. Compatible with Excel, QGIS, and ArcGIS.

Same data as CSV, formatted as a styled Excel workbook. Useful for client deliverables and reporting.

GPS Exchange Format. Compatible with Garmin, Trimble, and most field GPS devices and GIS applications.

Keyhole Markup Language. Compatible with Google Earth, Google Maps, and ArcGIS Pro. Pins are exported as Placemark elements.

This panel establishes the core reference geography for any highways scheme — the legal extent of the network, its physical alignment, and the fixed infrastructure sited alongside it. These layers are typically the first checked in a desk-based constraints study, since National Highways' ownership boundary and asset base determine which agreements, consents, and liaison processes a scheme will need to work through.

What it is: National Highways' published Operational Highway Boundary — the digitised extent of land the organisation owns and maintains, equivalent in principle to the "red line" boundary conventionally used on planning application site plans.

How it's used: Establishes precisely where NH's legal ownership and maintenance responsibility begins and ends. This is the starting point for determining whether proposed works fall within the highway boundary (and therefore need an NH licence or a Section 278/Section 38 agreement) or sit on third-party land requiring separate land referencing.

How to interact: Toggle on from the sidebar — the boundary renders as a dashed red outline with no fill, so it can be overlaid against other layers without obscuring them. Zoom in on a specific corridor to check exactly where the boundary sits relative to a proposed works area.

What it is: National Highways' own published centreline geometry for the Strategic Road Network (SRN) — motorways and trunk A-roads — representing the definitive digital alignment NH itself maintains and references internally.

How it's used: A base alignment reference for corridor studies, useful for confirming road classification and for cross-referencing chainage or section descriptions used in NH scheme documentation.

How to interact: Toggle on to display the network as a blue line overlay. Works alongside the Red Line Boundary layer to give both the legal extent and the physical carriageway alignment in one view.

What it is: The physical driver location marker posts positioned at regular intervals (nominally every 100m) along the SRN, each carrying a unique reference used by National Highways, the police, and emergency services to pinpoint an exact location on the network without needing GPS or a full survey.

How it's used: Useful for referencing exact chainage points in scheme documentation, coordinating with NH's own asset referencing conventions, and cross-checking incident or inspection locations reported by marker post number.

How to interact: This is a region-scoped, high-density dataset — select your operational region first, then toggle the layer on. Zoom in to resolve individual posts; click a post for its reference number.

What it is: National Highways' published locations of Emergency Areas — the designated refuge laybys on all-lane-running smart motorways where a driver can pull in safely if their vehicle suffers a breakdown between the standard hard shoulder sections.

How it's used: Relevant when planning works on or adjacent to a smart motorway section, since ERAs must remain accessible and unobstructed — both a safety-critical access consideration and a potential constraint on temporary traffic management layouts.

How to interact: Toggle on to show ERA locations as orange markers along applicable sections of the network.

What it is: The overhead Variable Message Sign gantries that display live speed limits, lane status, and driver warnings across the SRN, fed by National Highways' Datex II real-time data feed.

How it's used: Unlike the other layers in this panel, this is a live operational layer rather than a static planning reference — useful for situational awareness of current network conditions when reviewing a live site or corridor, rather than for desk-based constraint identification.

How to interact: Toggle on to see gantry locations update from the live API; click a gantry marker to see its currently displayed message.

What it is: National Highways' asset database of engineered structures on the network — bridges, culverts, retaining walls, gantry foundations, and similar structural assets NH is responsible for maintaining.

How it's used: Important for identifying existing structures a scheme might need to work around, tie into, or that could constrain construction methodology — for example, abutment clearances for a widening scheme, or existing culvert capacity relevant to a drainage design.

How to interact: Region-scoped — select a region first, then toggle on. Click a structure marker for its reference and type.

Understanding how a road is currently used — by annual volume, by near-real-time sensor flow, and by collision history — underpins most stages of a scheme's justification, from initial business case through to safety audit. This panel brings together the principal national traffic and collision datasets referenced in UK highways practice.

What it is: Department for Transport Annual Average Daily Flow count points — a yearly average traffic volume estimate for a specific point on the road network, broken down by vehicle type, published for all classified UK roads (not just the SRN).

How it's used: A foundational input for traffic modelling and economic appraisal work, and for establishing baseline demand on a corridor when assessing the case for a scheme.

How to interact: This layer is mutually exclusive with Network Flow (WebTRIS) — only one flow dataset can be active at a time to keep the map legible. Count points are colour-coded by road classification (Trunk Motorway, Trunk A-Road, Principal A-Road); a legend appears in the sidebar once the layer is active.

What it is: Near real-time flow data from National Highways' own roadside sensor network on the SRN, published via the WebTRIS API.

How it's used: Gives much finer temporal resolution than AADF data — useful for understanding how flow varies by time of day or day of week, which matters when justifying a temporary traffic management strategy or validating modelled assumptions against observed conditions.

How to interact: Three sensor types are distinguished: MIDAS (Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling), TMU (Traffic Monitoring Unit), and TAME (Traffic Appraisal, Modelling & Economics) sites. Mutually exclusive with AADF Count Points.

What it is: The Department for Transport's national database of police-reported personal injury road collisions (STATS19), each recorded with a severity classification of Fatal, Serious, or Slight.

How it's used: Central to road safety audit work, identifying collision cluster locations, and supporting the safety case for a proposed scheme.

How to interact: Filter the dataset by year using the checkboxes that appear once the layer is active. Use Start Crash Selection to draw a polygon around a specific junction or route section — the platform will instantly generate a severity breakdown (Fatal / Serious / Slight) for every collision within that boundary.

Highways schemes increasingly need to demonstrate consideration of non-motorised users, in line with guidance such as LTN 1/20. This panel covers the two principal national datasets for existing cycling and walking infrastructure that a scheme's active travel assessment would typically start from.

What it is: Sustrans' mapped network of signed cycling routes across the UK, covering both dedicated traffic-free paths and on-carriageway signed sections.

How it's used: Identifies whether a scheme crosses, runs alongside, or could otherwise affect an existing NCN route — relevant to active travel impact assessment, severance, and diversion planning during construction.

How to interact: Toggle on to display the network as a dashed green line.

What it is: Legally defined footpaths, bridleways, and byways as recorded on the relevant local authority's Definitive Map — the statutory legal record of rights of way in England and Wales.

How it's used: Works affecting a right of way may require a Public Path Order (for a temporary or permanent diversion or closure) — checking for PRoW crossings early in scheme design avoids late-stage legal process delays.

How to interact: This dataset is loaded per council area — select your operational region above first, then use the filter box under Public Rights of Way to find and load the relevant council's PRoW data.

Understanding proximity to trauma care and policing coverage is a standard part of construction phase planning under CDM 2015, and this panel provides the two datasets most commonly referenced for that purpose.

What it is: NHS-published locations of hospitals with Accident & Emergency or trauma centre capability.

How it's used: Informs emergency response time considerations for a Construction Phase Plan, and site-specific risk assessments where rapid access to trauma care is a relevant factor.

How to interact: Toggle on, click a marker for hospital name and detail.

What it is: Home Office dataset of territorial police force headquarters locations across England and Wales.

How it's used: Relevant for liaison planning on schemes requiring police coordination — abnormal load movements, planned road closures, or escorted convoys, for example.

How to interact: Toggle on, click a marker for the force name.

CivilsRoute aggregates and displays public sector information from multiple authoritative sources, including National Highways, the Department for Transport, the NHS, and the Home Office. Where datasets are licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, that licensing is preserved and this attribution page serves as the record of source for each layer shown above.

Datasets are aggregated periodically from each publishing source rather than streamed live, with the exception of Live VMS Gantries and Network Flow (WebTRIS), which query National Highways' live APIs directly. All other layers should be treated as a snapshot current as of the last aggregation date, not a real-time feed.

CivilsRoute is a visualisation and desk-study tool. It is not a substitute for statutory searches, topographical survey, or site-specific ground investigation. All measurements, boundaries, and asset locations shown should be independently verified against the primary source and confirmed on-site before being relied upon for construction, land referencing, or legal purposes.

A professional-grade GIS tool built for civil engineers, infrastructure planners, and environmental consultants working on National Highways and UK infrastructure projects.

Built on Leaflet.js with Canvas rendering for high-performance vector layers. Coordinate conversion uses Proj4.js (EPSG:27700 ↔ EPSG:4326). Spatial analysis uses Turf.js. Routing via OSRM.

v1.20.1 — Expanded Help & FAQ Hub with full per-layer technical documentation for all live panels.