Work is finally set to begin on a £6.8million project to make the Wheatsheaf Crossroads safer after several crashes, including incidents where people died. 

Cambridgeshire County Council has agreed to look for a contractor to install new four-way traffic signals at the junction, which it hopes will be put in place next year. 

The crossroads junction on the B1040 Somersham Road/Wheatsheaf Road/Bluntisham Heath Road has seen a number of accidents over the years. 

A report to the county council’s highways and transport committee this week (December 5), said there had been 27 injury collisions at the junction between January 2015 and August 2023. 

Two of these incidents had been fatal and three collisions had seen serious injuries caused. 

The county council said the fatal and serious collisions all happened between 2019 and 2022. 

A petition was set up in 2019 to call for major safety improvements and was signed by over 10,000 people. 

The county council decided back in September 2021 that it would install traffic signals at the junction in order to reduce the number of collisions involving drivers failing to give way. 

The authority even approved £6.8million of funding for the work in the same year. 

The report said the design work for the scheme was completed in September this year. 

The authority said it recognised that a “significant period” had passed since the funding for the project was agreed back in 2021. 

It said there were a number of reasons for this, including the length of time needed for design work, transport modelling and testing, and land acquisition negotiations. 

The report said the county council expects to award a contract for the work in February 2024. 

Work on installing the new traffic lights is hoped to begin in April 2024 and could take at least six months to complete. 

Until then the county council is planning to install vehicle activated signs, which it said will give advanced warning of the current crossroad junction. 

It said this will offer a “temporary improvement” until the new traffic signals have been installed. 

The proposals to move the project work forward was unanimously supported by councillors. 

The committee chair, Cllrr Alex Beckett, said they “all know the benefits [the project] will bring”.