The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Traffic bottleneck to be fixed
Contract agreed to tackle notorious Pondersbridge turn
A notorious bottleneck in Peterborough is to be fixed after a contract for the scheme was agreed.
A designated lane to turn right on the A605 between Stanground and Whittlesey towards Pondersbridge will be constructed, with Skanska to carry out the works.
Currently, traffic builds up on the roundabout and all the way back into Stanground due to vehicles waiting to turn off the A605, but the new lane will allow drivers to pass.
Congestion is also worse when flooding closes North Bank between Peterborough and Whittlesey, forcing more motorists to head through Stanground.
Of the approved funding, £2.8 million has come from the Department for Transport after a successful bid from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.
The rest of the money has been put up by Peterborough City Council.
Details on when the new lane will open, and when roadworks will begin, have yet to be decided.
In a report outlining the awarding of the contract to Skanska, the council said; “Successful delivery of the proposed programme of works will provide significant benefits to the residents of Peterborough and the wider travelling public, resulting in improvements to: journey times, accessibility and the environment. These benefits will be lost if the programme is not delivered.”
The exact design of the scheme has yet to be agreed due to nearby utilities.
Outlining the two options, the council said: “There is an on-road option that would require utilities work and a further payment to the utilities company (cost to be confirmed).
“The alternative option is to construct a new section of road which would require the purchase of land and the council is in early discussions with the landowner.
“Cost breakdowns for both options are currently unknown but will be confirmed once the design work has been completed. It is likely that funding will be awarded to Skanska and either the utility company or the landowner in order to be able to construct the scheme.”
Additional street lights will also be installed, and to offset the new carbon emissions the council said it will plant a number of trees.
A council spokesman said: “This is a project we are currently designing and will be building - there is still a lot of technical work needed in designing the scheme and we do not have a confirmed start date for the construction works, but we are hoping to have further information on this in the next few months.
“Following on from the council’s successful funding application as part of the Government’s National Productivity Investment Fund, where the council was awarded £2.8 million from the DfT with a £1.2 million match from the city council, we have been working with partners to find the best solution for this scheme given a number of complexities within the vicinity of the junction.
“We are now moving forward with a solution that will construct an additional right turn lane on the A605 which will alleviate the congestion problem associated with this junction.
“The traffic turning right from the A605 onto the B1095 causes significant delays and queuing, particularly in peak periods. This queuing impacts on the operation of a nearby junction to the west, and subsequently causes queuing/delays on its approaches.
“The scheme is driven by the imminent construction of a bridge to replace the existing A605 King’s Dyke railway level crossing and the regular flooding of the parallel North Bank route, both of which increase traffic flows along the A605.”