Published Thursday 2 March 2023 at 9:44
Over £8million is to be invested in roads and transport services across Blackburn with Darwen, if approved by next week’s Executive Board meeting.
The Council’s Transport Plan for 2023/24 sets out how government funding and money received from developers through Section 106 agreements will be spent on upgrading and improving the borough’s highways.
Within the Plan, over £1m is set aside for pot hole repairs, and £2m is allocated to improving bus services.
Maintenance and improvement works to road surfaces are planned in various locations across the borough, based on the findings of the most recent National Highways & Transport Public Satisfaction Survey, as well as ‘lifecycle planning’ – that’s identifying older road surfaces that are due an upgrade.
In line with the Council’s commitment to deliver the actions within its Climate Emergency Action Plan, £75,000 has been allocated to replace traditional street lighting with more energy efficient LED lighting.
£300,000 is set to be invested in improving traffic controls at key junctions, including in the Ewood and Witton areas.
Coun Quesir Mahmood, Executive Member for Growth & Development, said:
The new Local Transport Plan sets out how we plan to maintain our highways network in the most cost-effective way.
It’s all about providing a safe and resilient road network to enable all residents to access everything that the borough has to offer, to help them live full lives.
The works funded through the Local Transport Plan also promote growth and development, with Section 106 monies supporting highways improvement schemes to help us attract business development opportunities.
Throughout these highways and transport improvement works we will keep a close eye on our environmental impact and regularly review how we can reduced our carbon usage. An action plan is currently in development for a carbon benchmarking exercise, which will better inform our choices of materials used and so on, to minimise our environmental impact.
We have undertaken a competitive tendering exercise for a Civils and Surfacing Framework. A total of 32 bids were received for four lots of work including: surfacing works, civils works, surface dressing works and specialist surface treatments. The tendering process will ensure we achieve value for money from every pound spent on the Local Transport plan. Companies have also been asked to submit social value proposals as part of their bid, to provide added benefit to the borough, including support for local jobs, local companies and the supply chain, the recruitment of apprenticeships and how the company will care for the environment in their business practices.
More details of the proposed Local Transport Plan 2023/24 is available online with the agenda papers for the Executive Board meeting on Thursday 9 March 2023.
Filed under : Executive board | Highways | investment | transport