Work to improve a busy parkway junction and several highway enhancements in the Fengate area of Peterboroug are set to get under way later this year, benefitting motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, Peterborough City Council has said.

The projects, at Junction 3 of the Nene Parkway and near the future Red Brick Farm development, will take place after council Cabinet members approved plans to award contracts for both schemes to Milestone Infrastructure Limited.

During a meeting at Peterborough Town Hall this week, members heard that the projects will play a key role in driving growth by enhancing and adding capacity to strategic sections of the city’s highway network.

Councillor Marco Cereste, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Planning, Housing and Transport, said: “We are fully committed to improving our city’s highways network to help ensure we have the right infrastructure in place as our city continues to grow.

“These two projects will make a positive difference, not just in the individual areas, but for our highways network as a whole and I look forward to seeing them progressed.”

Work at Junction 3 of the Nene Parkway is due to start this summer, aimed at reducing severe peak hour congestion and improving efficiency of the junction and surrounding road network.

The £9.3million project, funded by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), will see the following work carried out:

• Creating a third southbound lane on Nene Parkway from J31 to J3.
• Adding a flare of 150m to A1139 Fletton Parkway westbound off-slip, creating a third lane.
• Signalisation of the Nene Parkway approach to J3, with a four-lane approach.

• Signalisation of The Serpentine approach to J3, with a four-lane approach.
• Creating a third lane on the A1260 The Serpentine northbound approach.
• A new footpath on Malborne Way between Saltmarsh and the Phoenix School.
• Upgrade to the cycleway between Shrewsbury Avenue and the gated access of the Nature Reserve.

Further details about the scheme will be announced in due course.

Meanwhile, a series of improvements in Fengate will also get under way this summer, aimed at improving access to the future Red Brick Farm business site, which will have a significant impact on the area’s existing highway network, as well as the wider Fengate area.

The £6.6million project, which is also funded by the Combined Authority, will see the following works carried out:

• Traffic signal improvements at the junction of Edgerley Drain Road / Storeys Bar Road / Vicarage Farm Road, in Vicarage Farm Road and Storeys Bar Road northbound approaches.
• Traffic signal improvements at J7 of the A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway (A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway / Oxney Road / Eastfield Road).
• Creating a mini roundabout at Oxney Road / Newark Road.

• Improvements to Newark Road footpath.
• Creating a new pedestrian crossing over Oxney Road.