Help and support

The Standards for Highways website contains the published Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) and Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works (MCHW) documents on behalf of the Overseeing Organisations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Users may also access archived copies of standards documents including Interim Advice Notes, as available from February 2001 onwards. 

The reference used for MCHW and DMRB documents comprises five characters, of which the first two are based on the location of the document within the new structure (i.e. combination of discipline and asset lifecycle codes) and the final three are a unique number allocated by the discipline to which the document is allocated. 

The discipline structure and related codes are as follows: 

• General Principles & Scheme Governance ”G”; 
• Sustainability & Environment ”L”; 
• Civil Engineering ”C” (comprising road layout, pavement, structures and bridges, geotechnics and drainage); 
• Technology ”T” (comprising control & communications technology and road lighting). 

The asset lifecycle structure and related codes are as follows: 

• General Information ”G”
• Appraisal ”A”
• Design ”D”
• Contract preparation “P”
• Construction ”C”
• Maintenance & Operation ”M”
• Inspection & Assessment ”S”
• Disposal ”Z”

As an example: ‘GD 304 - Designing health and safety into maintenance’ 

• "G" indicates this document relates to the general principles and scheme governance discipline
• "D" indicates this document relates to the design asset lifecycle

The standards documents are versioned as follows:

• New documents/major revision/policy change - 1.0.0 (the first number 1.0.0 represents the first publication of a new document, a major revision to a standards document, or a change to policy)
• Changes to requirements clauses x.1.0 (the second number represents a change to requirements but not a wholesale update, and the first number stays the same as it was previously as this is not a major revision)
• Changes to advice clauses or notes/spelling mistakes x.x.1 (the third number represents a more minor change to the standards document and the first and second number stay the same as they were previously)
• Details of the changes to a document will be provided in the release notes. Any DMRB standards document that is already published will remain in its current format e.g. revision 0, revision 2 until the next publication when it will change to having a version number in the format described above.

The ‘My account’ feature allows you to bookmark standards documents of interest and opt into receiving email notifications about when your 'saved’ standards are updated or when any update is made to a standard. 

You can create an account for free -  create an account here.

The download standards feature within the ‘My account’ area allows you to pick a date from 1st April 2020 and download a zip file of all standards documents that were current on the selected date.
For any standards documents published before this date, you can go the main search page and enter a date from February 2001 onwards to download standards document on an individual basis. 

• You may find more relevant results when a space is used between the letters and the numbers when searching e.g. BD 78 instead of BD78. 
• For design or advice documents with a number below '10', include the 0 in your search e.g. BD 01, GD 02. 
• For Interim Advice Notes with a number below 10, include '00' in the search e.g. IAN 001, and for a number above 10 but below 100, include '0' in the search e.g. IAN 069.

• Clicking on the document reference/title within a search result will display additional information about the document.
• Along with core details, you will be presented with a list of related documents where these exist. Related documents will either be previous revisions of the same document, or previously published documents that were withdrawn, or partially withdrawn, when the successor document was published.
• The archive starts at 2001 for individual documents. If would like to request a copy of a document dated before 2001, please use the feedback form. 

• The links to the Asset Data Management Manual (ADMM), Network Management Manual (NMM), Routine Winter Service Code (RWSC) and Technology Management and Maintenance Manual (TMMM) documents can now be found on the National Highways corporate website: https://nationalhighways.co.uk/suppliers/design-standards-and-specifications/admm-and-other-management-and-maintenance-guides/

• Published standards are routinely reviewed and updated to reflect best practice. We welcome feedback on our standards from suppliers and other stakeholders.  Please refer to the feedback page.
• If your question is not answered here, please use the feedback form.

Have you ever wondered why UK motorways have a consistent look and feel? Or, how is it that the UK roads and bridges are among the safest in the world?

The answer to these questions and many more can be found in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB), a suite of documents that define the requirements for every aspect of our road infrastructure.

The Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works (MCHW) has been modernised and republished in September 2025 to embed quality, improve contract preparation and enable future construction practices. Key changes include a new document set structure, a new consistent clause style, dedicated country-specific versions, and the introduction of templates to replace contract specific appendices. Essential guidance to support the transition to the updated MCHW can be found on the MCHW Information hub. Please note this link will open an external website.

Webinars will be hosted to mark the publication of the updated MCHW. Register here:

• 22 Oct registration link
• 13 Nov registration link
• 29 Jan registration link

The Manual of Contract Document for Highway Works (MCHW) are specification documents relating to motorway and all-purpose trunk roads in the UK. The MCHW is a core part of construction and maintenance contracts.

The MCHW is made up of the following document sets:

• Instructions for Specifiers - The Instructions for Specifiers (IfS) provide instructions to the Specifier on how to provide Works Specific Requirements (WSR). WSR templates are available to download from the IfS document page. In the IfS documents, instructions are provided inline with SHW clauses.
• Specification for Highway Works - The Specification for Highway Works (SHW) provides all the non-works specific construction requirements
• Method of Measurement for Highway Works (MMHW) - The Method of Measurement for Highway Works (MMHW) provides the method of measurement and bill of quantities necessary for the tendering and evaluation process.

The Operational Technology Specifications library (OTS) forms a part of National Highways' documentation, defining the requirements for Operational Technology.  It is the replacement for Traffic Systems and Signing (TSS) Plans Registry.  The documents are being updated as part of National Highways' upgrade to the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) and the Manual for Contract Documents for Highways Works (MCHW).

For those familiar with TSS Plans Registry:

• the search function is above under "Search this site".
• the index of current documentation, to the right, is almost exactly as found in TSS-PR.
• the buttons below are a filter of the whole specification library
• the legacy documents will be added shortly. If you require a legacy document, please email OTSL@nationalhighways.co.uk

To gain access please email TSSPlansRegistry@nationalhighways.co.uk

Thereafter once you have access, the library can be accessed here. 

Interim Advice Notes (IANs) were issued by National Highways from 1995 - 2017 but are no longer produced. They contained specific guidance to be used in connection with works on motorways and trunk roads in England, subject to any specific implementation instructions contained within an IAN.

While IANs must be read together with the DMRB and MCHW for the above works, and may incorporate amendments or additions to documents in these publications, they are not part of the DMRB or MCHW.