Teamwork saves 16 years of traffic congestion in 2015

The equivalent of more than 144,000 hours of congestion was avoided in 2015 due to Transport for London coordinating roadworks.

Transport for London (TfL) coordinated roadworks in the Capital last year, sharing trenches at nearly 1,200 sites to avoid repeated disruptions by different organisations.

TfL gave the Capital’s boroughs, other companies and major developers the opportunity to carry out works such as laying cables for telephone or broadband, repairs or renewal of water pipes and the setting up of electrical connections alongside roadworks that were taking place.

A £4Bn Modernisation Plan is currently being delivered across London by TfL, alongside other major schemes such as the Northern Line Extension at Battersea. Any works that other organisations need to carry out are being scheduled to take place at the same time to avoid further disruptions to traffic.

Garrett Emmerson, TfL’s Chief Operating Officer of Surface Transport, said: “We do everything we can to keep London’s traffic moving and minimise the disruption and congestion that road works can cause. While we are carrying out the biggest investment in London’s road network in a generation, we are coordinating with others to future proof the network so we, wherever possible, only need to dig the roads up once. It’s not only on big schemes where we do this – if utilities need to access their cables we do what work we can at the same time too. By planning ahead we are saving drivers a whopping 144,000 hours of future disruption each year.”

TfL coordinated works by BT, Thames Water, UK Power Networks and Virgin Media in the construction of a new traffic island that was being built on Battersea Rad for the Northern Line Extension and Battersea Power Station Development. The individual works would have required an additional 45 days of closures and disruption, which was avoided and all works were completed within the NLE closures.

TfL are working from their state of the art control centre, which operates 24 hours a day to minimise congestion in London. With the use of technology such aas Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique (SCOOT), delays have been reduced by 12% and will be expanded across London. Digital road signs also provide up-to-the-minute traffic information, along with up-to-date TfL traffic status pages and Twitter fees.

A new team of enforcement officers has been deployed to key roads, corridors and junctions to crack down on inconsiderate and illegal driving.

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