The professional highways engineering GIS tool for UK civil engineers, transport planners and Tier-1 contractors. Live traffic data, accident history, OS Grid coordinates and snap-to-road routing — in one browser tab.
Desktop optimised · Free to use
Core Toolsets
CivilsRoute consolidates the data sources and coordinate tools that civil engineers typically juggle across five different browser tabs into a single, fast, browser-native GIS environment — no licence, no VPN, no installation.
Enter any OS National Grid reference in 6-figure or 10-figure format and CivilsRoute instantly converts it to easting/northing, WGS84 latitude/longitude, and What3Words. Reverse conversion works from any format. All coordinate values are logged to a sortable table and exported as a multi-column CSV — ready for AutoCAD Civil 3D or MicroStation import.
OSGB36 · EPSG:27700Pull live Annual Average Daily Traffic counts directly from the National Highways WebTRIS API. Each monitoring site on the Strategic Road Network is plotted as a clickable marker showing total flow, vehicle class breakdown (motorcycles, cars, LGVs, HGVs), and direction-of-travel data. The AADT dashboard exports a formatted PDF report for inclusion in Transport Assessments and Preliminary Design packages.
National Highways · WebTRIS APIOverlay Department for Transport STATS19 road collision records on your working area. Incidents are clustered spatially so engineers can immediately identify Personal Injury Accident hotspots relevant to a proposed scheme. Clicking a cluster reveals individual records including collision severity, date, road classification, speed limit, weather conditions, and junction proximity — the core data set required for Road Safety Audits and Safety Reviews.
DfT STATS19 · PIA dataVisualise National Highways bridge and structures asset data overlaid on the live map. Structures are categorised by type — overbridges, underbridges, retaining walls, culverts — and each record links to its National Highways structure reference. Essential for preliminary route corridor appraisal, abnormal load route assessment and structures interaction reports on schemes touching the Strategic Road Network.
NH Asset Data · SRNDraw multi-point routes that automatically snap to the road network via OSRM (Open Source Routing Machine). The tool calculates total route distance, generates a turn-by-turn geometry and provides a coordinate log of the full path. For access route design, abnormal load assessment or construction traffic management planning, this replaces manual digitising in desktop GIS with a two-click workflow.
OSRM · Road network routingFreehand polygon and polyline drawing tools backed by Turf.js geometry calculations. Draw a site boundary and get instant area in hectares and square metres, perimeter length, and centroid coordinates. Drawing layers can be saved to the session, exported as GeoJSON or cleared independently. The tool is complemented by a straight-line measure function and a dynamic coordinate readout on hover.
Turf.js · GeoJSON exportDraw a route line on the map and generate a full elevation profile using ASTER 30m or SRTM 90m terrain data via OpenTopoData. The profile chart is interactive — hovering a point on the chart highlights the corresponding location on the map in real time. Export as a PDF for inclusion in preliminary design reports or drainage strategy documents.
ASTER 30m · SRTM 90m · OpenTopoDataMonitor National Highways Datex II VMS (Variable Message Sign) live feed data directly on the map. Active message signs are plotted by location with their current displayed message — useful for understanding real-time network management context during surveys or when coordinating traffic management on adjacent schemes on the Strategic Road Network.
Datex II · National HighwaysAuthoritative Data Sources
CivilsRoute does not use synthetic or estimated data. Each layer connects directly to the originating authority's API or open dataset — the same sources cited in Transport Assessments, Road Safety Audits and Preliminary Design reports.
Live and historic AADT traffic count data for the Strategic Road Network, queried directly from the National Highways WebTRIS REST API.
api.highwaysengland.co.uk/v1
Department for Transport road collision data — the statutory dataset recorded by police forces under STATS19 reporting requirements, covering all injury accidents on public roads in Great Britain.
data.gov.uk · DfT Open Data
All coordinate conversions use the OSGB36 / British National Grid datum (EPSG:27700) via proj4js — the standard UK surveying reference frame used in all engineering drawings and CAD deliverables.
EPSG:27700 · proj4js
Real-time VMS message feed from National Highways NTIS (National Traffic Information Service) via the Datex II standard data publication interface.
data.highways.gov.uk · Datex II
Elevation data from NASA ASTER GDEM (30m resolution) and SRTM (90m resolution), served via the OpenTopoData API through a CivilsRoute Cloudflare Worker proxy for CORS-safe access.
opentopodata.org · NASA ASTER
Location lookup and reverse geocoding via the What3Words API — increasingly used in highways incident management and site access instructions as a plain-language location reference that field teams can act on immediately.
api.what3words.com/v3
Snap-to-road routing uses the Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) backed by OpenStreetMap data — the same routing engine used in large-scale logistics and transport planning applications.
router.project-osrm.org · OSM
A topographic base layer and an OSGB grid canvas overlay — drawn in real time at 1km resolution using proj4 coordinate transformations — so engineers can cross-reference map features against OS grid squares without switching application.
opentopomap.org · OSGB canvas
Typical Workflow
CivilsRoute is designed around the real workflow of a highways engineer scoping a preliminary route corridor — not a generic GIS workflow.
Enter a postcode, OS Grid reference, easting/northing or What3Words. The map flies to the location and logs the coordinate in all formats.
Toggle WebTRIS AADT counts, STATS19 accident clusters, NH structures and VMS feed for the working area — all from the sidebar.
Use snap-to-road routing or freehand drawing tools to define the scheme corridor. Area, length and centroid are calculated live.
Download the coordinate table as CSV, export geometry as GeoJSON, or print the AADT dashboard as a formatted PDF report.
Early Feedback
CivilsRoute was built by a practising highways engineer to solve real problems encountered on live scheme delivery. Here's what colleagues in the industry have said.
"The site looks good and it's easy to get the information you need. Working across different areas, it's great to have it all in one place."
Tier-1 Contractor
"Dropping a pin and copying the grid reference straight into CAD saves me going back and forth constantly. Being able to find OS tile locations that quickly is saving me and the team hours."
Highways Design Team
"The VMS live feed is something I haven't seen in any other free GIS tool. Being able to see what messages are currently displayed on the SRN while planning traffic management has real operational value."
SRN Framework Contractor
Testimonials reflect feedback from civil and highways engineering practitioners.
Frequently Asked Questions
CivilsRoute is a free, web-based civil engineering route planning software tool built specifically for UK civil and highways engineers, transport planners, and Tier-1 contractors working on the Strategic Road Network. It brings together OS Grid coordinate conversion, live WebTRIS AADT traffic data, STATS19 accident mapping, National Highways structures data, snap-to-road routing, and CAD-ready coordinate export into a single browser-based GIS platform — with no installation or sign-up required.
Yes. CivilsRoute integrates directly with the National Highways WebTRIS API to display Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) counts at monitoring sites across the Strategic Road Network. Engineers can click any site to view vehicle class breakdowns (motorcycles, cars, LGVs, HGVs) and flow statistics, and export a formatted AADT dashboard report as a PDF for use in Transport Assessments and Preliminary Design submissions.
Yes. CivilsRoute provides a full OS National Grid reference planner supporting 10-figure and 6-figure OSGB36 grid references using the EPSG:27700 projection via proj4js. You can enter an OS grid reference, easting/northing pair, postcode, latitude/longitude, or What3Words address and the map will fly to that location and simultaneously log the coordinate in all formats. Results export as a CSV table with OS Grid, easting, northing, latitude, and longitude columns.
Yes. CivilsRoute overlays STATS19 road collision data from the Department for Transport — the statutory dataset recorded by police forces covering all personal injury accidents on public roads in Great Britain. Incidents are clustered spatially so engineers can immediately identify PIA hotspots relevant to a scheme. Individual collision records include severity classification, date, road conditions, speed limit and junction proximity — the core data required for Road Safety Audits and Safety Reviews.
The National Highways structures tool layer displays bridge and structures asset data on the Strategic Road Network, categorised by structure type — overbridges, underbridges, retaining walls, and culverts. Each record shows the NH structure reference, which is essential for preliminary route corridor appraisal, abnormal load route assessment, and structures interaction reports on schemes with direct or indirect interface with the SRN.
Yes. CivilsRoute exports all plotted points and drawn geometry as CSV (with OS Grid 6-figure, OS Grid 10-figure, easting, northing, WGS84 latitude, and longitude columns) and as GeoJSON. The CSV format is directly importable into AutoCAD Civil 3D via the Survey Database, and into MicroStation via the OpenRoads coordinate import tools. GeoJSON exports are compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS and any modern desktop GIS platform.
CivilsRoute is free to use in the browser with no account, sign-up or licence required. The platform is supported by advertising. The tool is desktop-optimised for use on Windows or macOS browsers — Chrome, Edge and Firefox are all supported. Some data layers (WebTRIS, STATS19, NH structures) require a stable internet connection to query their respective APIs in real time.
No installation. No account. Just open the map and start working.
CivilsRoute runs in your browser on any desktop Windows or macOS machine.