Why AFRY is a valued ITS partner
Specialists from AFRY Denmark share best practices in partnership with the Danish Road Directorate.
In Denmark, the Danish Road Directorate is the largest infrastructure owner with around 3,800 kilometers of road in addition to many of the country’s bridges and tunnels. At present, the need for more infrastructural capacity is expanding, and the use of smart, digital traffic management rise successively.
In 2025, AFRY and The Danish Road Directorate signed a framework agreement, that covers planning, construction, and operation of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and has an estimated value of around 170 million SEK over four years. The agreement is a continuation of a yearlong cooperation since the 1990s between AFRY and the Danish Road Directorate within ITS. Over the years, AFRY has provided many ITS projects. AFRY facilitates the Road Directorate in both technical, traffic, and operational matters. The ITS projects include detection, queue warnings, incident information etc. which help improve traffic flow and reduce incidents and accidents on the roads. An increasing task is the handling of cybersecurity issues. This includes the assessment of risks, the identification of mitigation measures and the continuation or restoring of system operation after breakdowns.
“We have been teaming up with The Danish Road Directorate since the 1990s. Hence, we have gained a unique insight into how they plan, execute, and optimize both on technology, economy, operations, and maintenance. This symbiosis works well,” says Poul Windfeld, Director and Head of Transportation Denmark at AFRY.
“The key element is a proactive and critical dialogue. As a trusted advisor, we discuss traffic management’s purpose on a specific road with the Road Directorate. What do we want to gain? – regarding road user behavior, traffic capacity and technical functions, and what are the IT security issues, e.g. That dialogue is extremely valuable for the success of the project,” he adds.
Strong position within ITS
In the 1990s, traffic management in Denmark began with many different and single-unit systems developed by, among others, AFRY in collaboration with the Road Directorate. Today, the systems are being tied together technically, and building one smart, intelligent system is among AFRY's strongest competencies within ITS.
“The different systems are being tied together to create more free-flowing traffic which is a way to make infrastructure more sustainable. Besides getting rid of tiresome waiting time due to traffic congestion, the result is both lower CO2 emissions from the exhaust and lower fuel consumption”, says Susan Appel, Service Area Manager ITS, Traffic & Mobility.
AFRY’s knot-tying competences
Driving on national roads in Denmark in 2026 you are often guided by data and digital road signs that are part of ITS. For instance, if an accident occurs or bad weather emerges, the intelligent traffic system will guide you. In case of an accident, the road signs warn you about potential traffic jams ahead. And if a strong wind is affecting your ride, data from weather stations communicate with the ITS and gives you a warning on the digital road signs. The underlying data network is developed by AFRY.
“Our skills are broad: We collect and integrate data from different systems – traffic lights, weather stations e.g. – and our specialists combine the different technical solutions. Moreover, we contribute with education and guidelines to the operators in the Road Directorate using the system every day. This “package” of special skills gives AFRY in Denmark a strong position within traffic management and ITS,” Per Rønn Olesen, Project Manager for ITS at AFRY, supplements.
Want to know more about the framework agreement between AFRY and The Danish Road Directorate or the collaboration’s best practices? Please contact:
