This is how much it will cost to install new traffic lights at five Preston junctions

It will cost more than £1m to replace the ageing traffic lights at five major junctions in Preston.

The Lancashire Post got budget details for each of the projects after highways officials indicated when the next phases of construction would begin.

Lancashire County Council is replacing the traffic control equipment at each of the busy intersections in order to implement new technology that the administration claims will make journeys “more efficient” while also improving pedestrian safety.

It has cautioned that the current traffic lights, as well as the systems that support them, are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain due to their age, which ranges from the late 1990s to the 1970s at one place.
The county council finished the first of five upgrading initiatives last week, at the junction of the A6 (Garstang Road/North Road) and Moor Lane. The Post understands that this is presently estimated to be the most expensive of the projects, with a total cost of £300,000.

Replacement work on the A59 at the junction of Ringway, Church Street, and Stanley Street, near Preston Prison, is scheduled to begin on March 2nd. The scheme’s anticipated cost is £260,000, and it will take between six and eight weeks to complete, with the most disruptive aspects completed at night. Some of the equipment that is still in use today was initially installed here more than a half-century ago.

The remaining three projects are all located on the Garstang Road stretch of the A6. The renovation at the intersection of St. George’s Road and Aqueduct Street is expected to commence on March 3rd, with transportation officials estimating a cost of £120,000.
The installation of new signals at Garstang Road’s more sprawling junction with Blackpool Road, near Moor Park, is budgeted at £250,000, while improvements at the busy intersection with Black Bull Lane and Sharoe Green Lane – the Royal Preston turn – are expected to cost £210,000. The commencement dates for the latter two schemes have yet to be disclosed.

According to current projections, the total expenditure for all five projects will be £1.14 million, though the ultimate figure could be higher.

As the Post discovered last year, three of the A6 renovations – at the intersections with Moor Lane, Blackpool Road, and Black Bull Lane – have already had their estimated costs rise by a total of £230,000 since they were first proposed.