The Department for Transport has outlined how a £70m fund for traffic signals - the 'biggest in decades' - will be allocated to English councils.
The cash is mainly being handed out through competitive bids or 'challenge processes', with some distributed to authorities through the 2023/2024 highway maintenance block.
The funding is capital money, which means it can't be spent on ongoing maintenance, and councils will have two years to spend the cash between 2025/25 and 2025/26.
The money was first announced under the Department for Transport’s recent Plan for Drivers, unveiled by transport secretary Mark Harper.
The Transport Technology Forum (TTF) is handling the cash on behalf of the government, with administrative support from LCRIG.
Darren Capes, head of the TTF and ITS policy lead at the DfT, detailed how the money was being allocated in a speech at LCRIG's Strictly Highways this week.
He said there would be £30m available Traffic Signals Obsolescence Grant (TSOG) pot 'to replace unreliable and obsolete equipment'. This cash is funded from the maintenance block, with £10m of it paid out through 'the transport metrics within the Integrated Transport Block formula'.
There would also be a £20m Green Light Fund (GLF) for 'tuning up traffic signals to better reflect current traffic conditions'.
Finally, there would be a £20m Intelligent Traffic Management Fund, to deploy advanced technology for traffic signals'.
The remaining £20m of the TSOG not paid out by formula, plus the other two £20m payments will be awarded through challenge processes opening this autumn.
Monies would be awarded in £500,000 lots for the TSOG and GLF, using the same process as used for the £15, 2021 Traffic Signal Maintenance allocation - the pot of cash that trailblazer for this latest announcement.
Authorities may be restricted to only one of the funds, Mr Capes suggested.
On the ITMF, there will be one challenge process, also similar to the 2021 Traffic Signals Maintenance allocation, with the aim being to fund eight to 10 authorities.
Mr Capes said in all his time in traffic signals he had never seen a specific funding pot this large, adding it represents a 'huge opportunity for the sector'.
It was widely known that Mr Capes was working hard to make a strong case for extra signal cash, after the success of the 2021 Traffic Signal Maintenance allocation, which led to an average 8% to 12% reduction in journey times at junctions.
The process behind that allocation also provided insights into the state of signals in England.
