Works start to fix Polegate traffic lights

The traffic light control box at Polegate crossroads was destroyed in a collision

The works at the busy crossroads will take from two-three weeks to complete, according to East Sussex Highways.

Update on Polegate crossroads after road crash

An East Sussex Highways spokesman said, “The work our contractors are carrying out will involve some continuing disruption, but the work is necessary due to the serious damage caused in the crash.

“The fact the temporary lights are controlled manually means crews can alter the phasing to take into account the prevailing traffic flow, which will help us to keep disruption to a minimum.

“We’d ask motorists to bear with us while we carry out this essential work, which will mean we have a state-of-the-art traffic lights system in place at this busy junction.”

Today, contractors for East Sussex Highways began work to remove the old traffic lights and install new ducting and cabling

At the beginning of next week, engineers will install new traffic lights and the new controller, with the new system expected to be up and running by Sunday, February 17.

Emergency services at the scene of the collision

During the work, the road will remain open at all times with the junction controlled manually by temporary traffic lights.

There has been serious disruption to traffic on the A2270 Eastbourne Road at its junction with Wannock Road ever since the traffic lights’ control box was destroyed in a collision on January 16.

Temporary traffic lights were put up in their place, but these were heavily criticised as causing a ‘nightmare’ for motorists, as they repeatedly became stuck on red and were not as ‘sophisticated’ as the lights they replaced.

It has taken some time for the original lights to be replaced as the controller which was damaged was described by Highways as being ‘obsolete technology’ and an entirely new one has had to be built.

Highways said it asked its contractor to put all other works on hold and focus on getting the lights up and running ‘as quickly as possible’.

More information about roadworks is available on the East Sussex Highways website at www.eastsussexhighways.com