The Highways Agency and its Dutch counterpart, the Rijkswaterstaat, have entered into a strategic relationship in order to learn from each others experience. This is known as the PIM project, which was officially launched at a joint meeting of the two Ministers at the Dutch Embassy in London in January 2006.

Grontmij playing central role

In order to ensure successful delivery, each agency brought in a consultancy. In the case of the Rijkswaterstaat this was Grontmij. The Highways Agency has mainly used the project to learn about Dutch technologies and experiences used for traffic management on the strategic network, including hard shoulder running and other aspects of managed motorways. Some of the results of the PIM Project can be seen in the 2008 Department for Transport Command Paper, in which the extent and benefits of hard shoulder running in the Netherlands are summarised.