Traffic lights up to almost half a century old are to be replaced in a £5 million investment.
A report to the Cabinet on Friday 27 November recommends lights infrastructure dating back to 1967 is replaced with the latest low voltage LED lanterns to reduce energy and maintenance costs together with new poles, signal heads, cabling and ducting.
The scheme will target eleven major routes, junctions that are more than 25 years old and sites with a significant history of faults and will take place over a three year period from 2016 to 2020.
The work complements the city’s £80 million investment in highways, in which traffic controlled junctions are also being reviewed and upgraded when work takes place as part of roads and footpath improvements. In total, it will see around half of the city’s traffic signal infrastructure replaced over the next few years.
Councillor Malcolm Kennedy, Cabinet member for regeneration, said: “We have all been caught up in disruption caused by the failure of traffic lights, and it also costs us more as the maintenance costs and repair bills are higher.
“This is a good investment as it will reduce our energy and maintenance costs in future, and has the added benefit of helping traffic flow more smoothly on our roads
“This is part of our wider commitment to tackling long-standing historic underinvestment dating back many decades to make life easier for pedestrians.
The work will also see seven satellite junction boxes, which between them control the city’s 478 traffic light and pedestrian crossings, upgraded to improve reliability and reduce the number of failures.
The routes which will be improved are Speke Road; Aigburth Road; Park Road; High Street (Picton); Prescot Road/East Prescot Road; West Derby Road; Townsend Avenue/Lane; Utting Avenue; Longmoor Lane; Queens Drive and the Strand.
The city’s 25 oldest traffic lights, and their age in years, are:
Mather Avenue/Booker Avenue – 48
St Marys Road/Dock Road – 46
Rathbone Road/Binns Road – 42
Walton Lane/Priory Road – 40
Pilch Lane/Dovecot Avenue – 40
Brodie Avenue/Booker Avenue – 39
Menlove Avenue/Cromptons Lane – 36
Overton Street/Overbury Street – 36
Menlove Avenue/Woolton Road – 34
Walton Hall Avenue/Richard Kelly Drive – 32
Vauxhall Road/Boundary Street – 32
Croxteth Road/Sefton Park Road – 32
Princess Drive/Yew Tree Lane – 32
Town Row/Melwood Drive – 32
Lodge Lane/Wordsworth Street – 32
Halewood Road/Grange Lane – 31
Woolton Road/Taggart Avenue – 31
Church Road/Woolton Road – 31
Church Road/Speke Road – 31
Commercial Road/Sandhills Lane – 31
Orrell Lane/Moss Lane – 31
Stanley Road/Bankhall Street – 31
London Road/Lime Street – 31
Woolton Road/Springwood Avenue – 30
Hunter Street/Islington – 29
