How a mother-daughter duo keep Surrey drivers safe

22 November 2025

Matt Treacy,in Hindheadand

Zac Sherratt,South East

News image — Debbie Wood and Jordan Cummings are part of the small but vital team keeping Hindhead Tunnel running

BBC A mother and daughter both with long blonde hair stood in the centre of a dual carriageway in a tunnel. The road is clear of vehicles apart from a white van in the background on the right. The women are wearing yellow high-vis jackets and white hard hats while smiling at the camera — Debbie Wood and Jordan Cummings are part of the small but vital team keeping Hindhead Tunnel running

Tens of thousands of drivers pass through Hindhead Tunnel each day - but how many of them know what it takes to keep the UK's second-longest road tunnel running smoothly?

Sitting beneath a site of special scientific interest in Surrey, the tunnel opened early and under budget in 2011 - but work to keep its vast technology functioning was only just beginning.

Together, mother-daughter duo Debbie Wood and Jordan Cummings, from Horndean in Hampshire, are part of a small but vital team that keeps the tunnel running safely.

"We really love tunnels," said Jordan, 25, laughing at the thought - but she is only half joking.

A control room in a tunnel, showing about a dozen screens on a wall with four large desks facing towards them. Two people are sat at the front two desks — The control room at Hindhead

"I think I could drive through with my eyes closed, I know every bump," says Debbie, 48, who use to work in the control room but is now a tunnel safety officer.

"I met my other half working here, Jordan has grown up around tunnels and now she's here."

Jordan, who works in the control room, says it is a working relationship she enjoys.

"If I've had a really hard day dealing with a bad incident, Mum will understand exactly what I'm going through," she says.

The tunnel is nearly 2km (1.2 miles) long and normally carries 43,000 vehicles a day - but it is nearly midnight and the southbound carriageway is closed for routine maintenance when we visit.

National Highways CCTV still image showing a car on fire inside a tunnel — The team at Hindhead deal with a range of incidents, like this car fire in 2015

Complete in hard hats and high-visibility jackets, Debbie and Jordan walk in the middle of the empty road.

But the tunnel is far from just a concrete tube - it is crammed with thousands of pieces of technology that all need to work together, including radar sensors to detect slow-moving vehicles, jet fans for ventilation, CCTV cameras and adjustable lighting in the roof.

"You update your phone all the time, the tunnel is no different really, it needs regular updates and upgrades as well," says Debbie.

"It's like my second home, I spend so much time here."

Jordan agrees: "Every single day is just different, I never know what I'm going to get.

"I love it."

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