Castle Rock

Castle Rock was founded in 1984 on the campus of the University of Nottingham, England. Corporate founder Peter Davies was Reader in Transportation Engineering and Director of the University of Nottingham&s;s Transportation Research Group. Castle Rock Consultants (CRC) started as an offshoot of this Research Group, at first owned jointly by the University and key CRC staff members. During the 1970s, the University Group had become a leader in the then-new field of microprocessor traffic monitoring: using portable, roadside electronics to count, classify, weigh, and measure vehicle speeds automatically. Major sponsors included the UK government&s;s Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL) and private industry. In 1981, Dr. Davies developed a portable weigh-in-motion (WIM) system for Arizona DOT which was demonstrated on I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson. The resulting interest led to significant FHWA funding for further work by the University Research Group. Castle Rock&s;s first contract was the 1984 Heavy Vehicle Electronic License Plate (HELP) system Feasibility Study, jointly funded by Arizona, Oregon and FHWA. This initial work provided the foundation for the $25M HELP Program/Crescent Project, a 10-year initiative that came to involve over 20 states. HELP/Crescent gave direction to Commercial Vehicle areas of the U.S. National ITS Program of the 1990s. The HELP pool-fund study retained CRC each year as program management consultant, and many of its states remain key CRC clients to this day.