Blogs Highways Highlight

In October, our teams completed a long-awaited traffic scheme on Camborne Avenue in Aylesbury. The entire length of Camborne Avenue, from the roundabout with Wendover Road to Brentwood Way, has now been resurfaced and relined, with areas of high friction surfacing to improve safety and further measures taken to help future proof the area to accommodate potential future cycle route connection.

Active travel and connectivity for people between where they live, work and spend leisure time remains an infrastructure priority for the council. We have already overseen significant investment in active travel infrastructure for Aylesbury town thanks to external government and developer funding, making it easier for people to walk, wheel or cycle for local journeys. Recent achievements include the extension and upgrade of the Platinum Way and the new St Peter's Greenway. We were also able to secure government support from the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) to upgrade the Aylesbury Canal Towpath.

The traffic scheme for Camborne Avenue addressed much-needed road resurfacing works, while also utilising the opportunity to secure external funding to complete work to design and upgrade a nearby crossing point as part of active travel improvements between Aylesbury town centre and Bedgrove. The zebra crossing between Turnfurlong Lane and Bodiam Close has been converted to a puffin crossing. The existing belisha beacons (the black and white stripey poles with a yellow globe on top, indicating a zebra crossing) have been removed and replaced with new traffic signals with sensors to detect pedestrians and give them extra time if they need it to finish crossing.

This project is a good example of collaborative forward planning. Identifying the benefits of upgrading the pedestrian crossing ahead of the carriageway resurfacing will prevent the need to dig up a recently resurfaced road at a later date. The crossing point has already been widened so it is ready for a potential future cycle route connection – for example if the puffin crossing needs to be converted to a toucan crossing (suitable for both pedestrians and cyclists); providing a cost-effective solution which minimises disruption to local residents and road users.

Did you know? The design of a puffin crossing is in accordance with Department for Transport (DfT) guidance and differs from the older pelican crossing in that the lights signalling to the pedestrians are on the same side of the road as the pedestrian, rather than across the road. The overall crossing time is established each time by on-crossing pedestrian detectors. There are two sensors on top of the traffic lights (pedestrian crossing detector; PCD, and pedestrian kerb detector; PKD). These sensors detect if pedestrians are crossing slowly and can hold the red traffic light longer if needed. If a pedestrian presses the button but then walks off, the PKD will cancel the request so traffic is not halted unnecessarily, making the lights more efficient.

In addition to supporting the road network using safe and reliable systems, the new signals utilise Light-Emitting Diode (LED) technology and Extra Low Voltage equipment providing further energy efficiency and an enhanced life-cycle duration.