Colin buchanan

Colin Buchanan was commissioned by the Isle of Wight Council to develop a SATURN highways model of the Isle of Wight to establish future traffic flows over the next 25 years.

Working closely with the Council's appointed Technical and Economic Advisors for the Highways Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project; this model will be used to determine current and future traffic volumes in order to assist bidders for the Highways PFI in their submissions and for future use by the selected PFI contractor. The development of the model is an innovative approach by the Council in order to minimise the traffic risk to bidders for the Highways PFI.

The Island has a unique traffic growth pattern and this is likely to have a significant impact on how the deterioration of the carriageway is modelled. The model will also show the effect on traffic resulting from road closures; providing more information to the PFI bidders undertaking road maintenance in order to produce a robust work programme and schedule, whilst identifying the traffic risk to lenders.

The model will also provide an invaluable tool for assessing the traffic impact resulting from planned improvements of the road network and changes in the island's land use.