TWO projects to improve traffic flow in Swindon have been awarded £2.9m of Government funding.

Swindon Council is to receive cash to replace the four roundabouts at Bruce Street Bridges with one large traffic light-controlled roundabout, and also to install a traffic-light controlled junction on Great Western Way to allow direct access to Newcombe Drive.

The two projects are estimated to cost £4.7m in total, with the remaining funds coming from section 106 money provided by developers.

The cash is part of £165m of Government funding to tackle traffic bottlenecks in England. Wiltshire Council was awarded £1.9m towards a £2.7m project to make the A350 in Chippenham a dual carriageway.

The work at Bruce Street Bridges is part of Swindon Council’s estimated £10.7m scheme to remodel four roundabouts on Great Western Way over a four-year period to reduce congestion and boost the local economy. The other roundabouts are Transfer Bridges, North Star and Cockleberry.

Coun Keith Williams, cabinet member for highways, strategic transport and leisure, said: “For the Government support we’re extremely grateful. It’s testament to the efforts of the team working in highways at Swindon Borough Council.

“They were the ones that put in the bid and successfully got £2.9m worth of funding. This is substantially more than Wiltshire, a larger authority, were able to get for the work they’re doing.

“This really is a good sum. To be honest with you, there are other schemes in Swindon that could benefit from this sort of money and we just need to hope we’re as successful as this on the bids.”

The final plan for Bruce Street, revealed to residents at a consultation earlier this year, has traffic lights at peak times only, with set back controlled pedestrian crossings on the western and northern arms. There would be give way restrictions at Bruce Street, Rodbourne Road and Kemble Drive, as well as improved pedestrian and cycle routes.

Coun Williams said: “It’s basically improved lineage, traffic light-control and we could put in certain mechanisms, such as bus prioritisation. And the modelling has shown this does improve the flow of traffic. Whilst we aren’t making the roads any bigger, what it does allow us to do is make more efficient use of the roads so we can get more traffic through at peak times.”

He said work would start in the second half of 2014 after work to alleviate foul water flooding in the Rodbourne area. He said Thames Water would undertake work between October 2013 and June or July 2014, with Swindon Council starting its own alleviation work in April.

He said this would mean about two years of traffic disruption in the Rodbourne area from October 2013, and urged motorists to start thinking about alternative routes.

Steve Penny, 59, who has lived in Bruce Street for 52 years, said the congestion problem at the roundabouts at peak times had got worse as Swindon had expanded.

He said: “I think it’s going to be a pain for the next couple of years if they’re going to do the sewage works and then start on the roundabout, but if the end result is the congestion could be cut down, it’s got to be a good thing.”

The new junction on Newcombe Drive is associated with the Oasis revamp and would allow vehicles to access Newcombe Drive and the Hawksworth Trading Estate directly from Great Western Way, rather than having to travel down Hawksworth Way, which is planned to be the access to the multi-storey car park for the Oasis.