ALMOST half-a-million pounds will go towards making a busy road near the town centre quicker to pass through after transport chiefs nodded through new funding plans.
Work on the A322/A329 corridor has been taking place for the past five years in order to improve traffic flow and journey times along Downshire Way, a highway that gets congested during peak periods.
The Berkshire Local Transport Body has already funnelled £400,000 from a special government funding pot towards the scheme and yesterday agreed to direct an extra £450,000 to the project.
It is claimed further enhancements to the scheme could provide ‘additional capacity improvements in peak hours’, meaning cars will be able to travel through this part of Bracknell quicker.
‘Adaptive signal-controlled systems’ will reduce delays for drivers by ‘releasing more traffic’ and ‘easing movement’ for vehicles travelling to and from the A329 and the Junction 10 M4.
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Bracknell Forest councillor Marc Brunel-Walker explained how the extra cash will help motorists in the area at a meeting of the Body.
He said: “The M3/ M4 and the bit by the sports centre is probably one of the last remaining major pinch points in the area controlled by Bracknell Forest.
“It has regular issues of traffic trying to cross in both directions, a previous scheme alleviated some of the problems with the available funding.
“This scheme will tidy up a number of safety issues at a number of access points to be able to improve the traffic flow north, south, east and west.
“The small signalling that sits within all of this as well will have a demonstrable impact on overall traffic flow.
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“So we gain not just by having improvements across the junction, but also improvements in technology that will aid traffic flow in a smarter way, rather than just kind the static signal timing that we see now.”
This part of Bracknell is an air quality management area, meaning it is deemed to be an area where concentrations of harmful Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) have or are exceeding both European and national standards.
The improvements to the A322/A329 corridor are expected to be complete by July 2021, according to a report from the Body.
Its main elements include widening the A322 Downshire Way, lengthening the existing subway beneath Downshire Way, the signalisation of the Old Bracknell Lane West junction and more.
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The junction improvements along the A322/A329 corridor are required to support plans for the development of around 11,000 dwellings in the borough by 2026.
The Berkshire Local Transport Body met to confirm the additional funding at a meeting on Thursday, March 11.
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