New Tweenaway Cross road layout in Paignton halves journey times

New Tweenaway Cross road layout in Paignton halves journey times.

Traffic journey times through one of South Devon's busiest junctions have been cut in half thanks to the completion of a major road scheme in Torbay.

Tweenaway Cross in Paignton, which forms a key part of Torbay's transport network, used to suffer traffic congestion, particular during the morning and afternoon peak periods and at the end of the school day.

These problems also had an adverse effect on the economy of the area and the regeneration of Torbay.

The main phase of Torbay Council's £4.8 million Tweenaway Cross junction improvement scheme was completed in July, and monitoring has shown a big improvement to traffic flows and journey times.

The monitoring was carried out using Automatic Nameplate Recognition Cameras (ANPRs), with the system recording the journey time along a 1.4 kilometre length of Kings Ash Road and Brixham Road through both the Tweenaway Cross and Claylands Cross junctions.

Analysis of flows during one week in August last year and in the same period this August showed a halving in journey times during peak periods from 7.5 minutes to 3.75 minutes, with the average speed at peak times increasing from about 7.5mph to 15 mph.

Cllr Robert Excell said: "We recognise that residents and road users suffered considerable inconvenience whilst work on the scheme was in progress, but we have always maintained that it would benefit the Bay in the long run.

"It's early days, but the initial signs are very encouraging that the scheme has delivered significant improvements.

"The scheme is not complete. The final phase to widen the eastern side of Totnes Road will commence in early 2012, and this is expected to result in further improvements to journey times and junction capacity.

"The final phase will mainly involve works next to the existing road.

"The Tweenaway Cross scheme forms part of a long term plan to improve the A380 western corridor as this serves many business areas."