The Highways Agency hopes to cut traffic jams and improve road safety on one of the busiest parts of the UK road system with a £1.9m CCTV network upgrade.

The agency has introduced the new video monitoring system on the M5, M6 and M42 motorways around Birmingham, so it can react faster to accidents or congestion caused by major events.

More than 280 cameras have been installed by supplier Tyco Integrated Systems. That number is likely to increase to 700 in the next few years.

Using an optical fibre transmission system from AMG Systems, the Highways Agency network will carry video, voice and low-speed data between control rooms.

The system allows transmission of live, full-bandwidth images from 80 of its most important cameras, and provides capacity for future growth.

'The old infrastructure was 14 years old and the spare capacity was being eaten up rapidly,' said Ian Harrison, senior traffic technology engineer at the Highways Agency.

'This new system also has storage capabilities, as we need to store the information for a short time in case it is needed as evidence for road accidents.'

The system is accessible to other agencies, including traffic police and road safety officers.