OVER night work starts to St Peters Way on Monday 25 to upgrade the speed camera system.
The £300,000 scheme will introduce an average speed camera system to the bypass, an upgrade from the current cameras which have become increasingly difficult to maintain.
The work will see overnight road closures from June 25 between 10pm - 6am for 12 nights between Topp Way and the M61. Traffic will be diverted through Farnworth and the M61.
The scheme is being paid for by the Safer Roads Greater Manchester Partnership.
Any money generated by fines goes to the government.
The A666 St Peters Way had five safety cameras installed in 2000 as a result of speed related injury accidents on the route. Since the cameras have been installed there has been a sustained reduction in injury accidents of approximately 60%.
In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to carry out operate and maintain the cameras.
Similar cameras have already been introduced along the A675 Belmont Road between Junction 3 of the M65 and Scout Road, on the outskirts of Bolton.
Councillor David Chadwick, the council’s Executive Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport said: “We have had speed cameras on St Peter’s Way, but sometimes they have been on and sometimes they have been off depending on the maintenance situation and the ability to close the road to repair them.
“The road used to have quite a bad reputation many years ago for car crashes. But since the speed limit was introduced and the cameras were first installed, accidents have become quite rare.
“This system will reinforce the speed limit, which is there for good reasons.”
A spokesperson for the Safer Roads Greater Manchester Partnership said: “Statistics prove that in areas that use average speed cameras only one in 10,000 journeys results in a fixed penalty notice, which shows that they are a highly effective form of controlling vehicle speeds.
“The new system will require motorists to control their speed over a much greater distance, which will not only prevent collisions but also help traffic flow on a key route in and out of the town.”