Road transport in Peterborough

The City of Peterborough in the East of England has an extensive and well integrated road network, owing partly to its status as a new town. Since the 1960s the city has seen considerable expansion and its various suburbs are linked by a system of parkways. Despite its large-scale growth, Peterborough has the fastest peak and off-peak travel times for a city of its size in the United Kingdom, due to the construction of the parkways. The Local Transport Plan anticipates expenditure totalling around £180 million for the period up to 2010 on major road schemes to accommodate future development. [ [http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/page-4536 The Second Local Transport Plan] Peterborough City Council, March 2006]

The A1/A1(M) broadly follows the path of the historic Great North Road from St. Paul's Cathedral at the heart of London, through Peterborough (Junction 17), continuing north a further 335 miles (539 km) to central Edinburgh.

Parkways

The parkways were constructed under guidelines from the Peterborough Development Corporation as a system of high speed roads to connect the new townships which housed London's post-war overspill population.

The majority of Peterborough's parkways are dual carrigeways, to accommodate the the large quantity of local traffic within the city, and national and regional traffic bypassing it. However, due to their age, many of the parkways do not have hard-shoulders. Most of the parkways that bypass the city have graded roundabout junctions.

Werrington Parkway

The Werrington Parkway runs from the south of Glinton, where the A15 forks into the Peterborough east bypass and main road into the city centre. The majority of the route has a 50mph speed limit due to nearby housing and bus stops on the route. At the south end, the parkway terminates in a roundabout where it becomes the Lincoln Road. The parkway has several roundabouts along its length.

Paston Parkway

The Paston Parkway bypasses the eastern edge of Peterborough, terminating at a roundabout with the A1073, where the city bypass becomes the Frank Perkins Parkway. In 2008, Peterborough City Council funded the dualing of the northernmost stretch of the Paston Parkway between two roundabouts east of Gunthorpe. This has had a significant impact on reducing congestion, as the route is used as a communter run between the city's Eastern Industry development in Fengate and settlements north of the city.

Fletton Parkway

Fletton Parkway comprises the entire southern bypass of Peterborough and terminates westbound at the A1. A stretch of the road is currently being widened to three carrigeways in order to alleviate congestion of traffic approaching the A1 junction.

Frank Perkins Parkway

The Frank Perkins Parkway is named after Frank Perkins, local founder of Perkins Engines. The parkway has access to the Perkins Engines site.

Longthorpe Parkway

Nene Parkway

The A1260 is a major road that serves the Western side of Peterborough. The road is dual-carriageway from its southern terminus with the A15 at Hampton to its northern terminus with the A47 at Longthorpe. The road is also known as the “Nene Parkway” and serves as major route from getting from the southern end of Peterborough to the Northern end without having to travel into to the centre of the city via the A15. The road itself starts at Hampton at a small roundabout with the A15 where after it goes past Serpentine Green at another roundabout before it very quickly heads to a major junction where its meets the A1139. After that junction the road takes on the form of a major dual-carriageway with its own grade separated junctions where it meets the A605 on a restricted junction before passing over the River Nene before meeting the A1179 on a another junction. After that junction the road quickly heads north before coming to a major junction with the A47 where the road termites on a large roundabout with the A47 passing over on top. In order to undertake urgent repairs on the Nene parkway bridge over the river nene and Nene Valley railway, part of the parkway was reduced to one lane in either direction with temporary speed enforcement cameras. [http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Road-works-bring-morning-misery.4491716.jp] [http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Look-out-for-speed-cameras.4455952.jp] The work began in September 2008 and is due to last one month. In 2008, the city council also undertook improvements to the roundabout at the southern terminus of the parkway, increasing the southbound and eastbound approaches to three approach lanes and adding a third lane northbound on the roundabout for traffic using a newly constructed running lane between junctions 1 and 2, where there are now three lanes northboud. Traffic lights have also been installed. Improvements are also planned to install traffic signals on the roundabout at the northern terminus of the parkway with the A47 Soke Parkway.

Orton Parkway

Soke Parkway

The Soke Parkway consists of the entire section of the A47 that runs through Peterborough. As a trunk route, the stretch of road is maintained by the Highways Agency, who have recently undertaken an update of roadlighting on the route. Apart from a roundabout on the eastern edge of the city, the parkway is unbroken dual carrigeway. The Nene Parkway terminates in the Peterborough Longthorpe Grade separated junction (GSJ) which opened in December 1987 where it meets the A1260 (Nene Parkway). There is a GSJ for Bretton and a Sainsbury's, and it passes the [http://www.bwcs.org.uk Bretton Woods Community School] . The £1.2m Peterborough Westwood GSJ opened in January 1987. This section of road is called the "Soke Parkway" (named after the Soke of Peterborough). When this was first built, in the mid-1970s, the A47 followed what is now the A1139 "Paston Parkway". It crosses the East Coast Main Line and meets the A15 at New England near to a Morrisons (former Safeway), and Boulevard and Brotherhood retail parks. There is another GSJ at Paston and it [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/322311 meets] the other strand of the A15 at a GSJ near Gunthorpe. It meets the A1139 at a roundabout.

ee also

*Stagecoach in Peterborough

References