The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has agreed funding of £1.35m to deliver a series of infrastructure and technology improvements aimed at improving traffic flow.
The funding is for as part of the WMCA’s regional Corridor Management plan, which is led by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and supported by the ten local highway authorities and aims to identify problems on the most congested routes, particularly during peak periods, and propose measures to improve performance.
Planned infrastructure improvements range from new and improved ANPR cameras, networking monitoring software that will use GPS technology to provide real-time updates to SatNav and other navigation devices through to new bus priority sensors at traffic lights and more digital message boards across the region.
Peter Boulton, TfGM’s head of highways, said: ‘At a time when our road network is experiencing increased levels of traffic it’s essential that we continue to deliver new systems and processes to stay one step ahead of the traffic.
‘Working alongside our district partners we’re aiming to deliver a series of physical interventions and innovative digital services to help keep the public moving, particularly during the busiest times of the day.
While co-ordination of work on the region’s roads is managed by the ten authorities, TfGM said the Corridor Management plan sets out to ensure closer scrutiny of planned work to ensure that it does not impact on the road network.
The plan is part of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s Congestion Deal.
He said: ‘This a small but critical step towards tackling congestion and the associated issue of poor air quality – which is made worse by standing traffic.
‘Not only will this see the roll-out of new tools to enable TfGM to deliver real-time traffic updates, it will also add increased resilience to the work that their control centre delivers around the clock.’
The Corridor Management plan comprises many specialist areas including:
- Data and highways modelling
- Enforcement
- Network Instrumentation
- Control of Works
- Corridor Management including improvement schemes
- Active travel
- Travel Demand Management
