A489/A483 Newtown, Powys - Bypass Work Starts March 2016 - • Opened 14/02/19 •

[AAndy]

Update 30th November. A lot of line painting underway.

Looking North from the Kerry road;
a483 newtown bypass powys construction november 2018 b by Dskies, on Flickr

a483 newtown bypass powys construction november 2018 by Dskies, on Flickr

[Chris Bertram]

Bleddy 'ell, is that an NSL sign I see? Couldn't they find a reason to restrict it to 50?

[AAndy]

Bleddy 'ell, is that an NSL sign I see? Couldn't they find a reason to restrict it to 50?

This is Powys CC territory (... Once of the last bastions of de-restricted highways. Visit before its all 40mph )

[Euan]

From the pictures it certainly looks like the new A483 will be ready to open soon, once the road markings have been added. Signage such as the route confirmation sign and the NSL sign have already been added. Is Spring 2019 still the planned opening date for the road?

[AAndy]

From the pictures it certainly looks like the new A483 will be ready to open soon, once the road markings have been added. Signage such as the route confirmation sign and the NSL sign have already been added. Is Spring 2019 still the planned opening date for the road?

There is still a short section to construct... must be planned.
a483 newtown bypass incomplete section by Dskies, on Flickr

Some more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsm5wvofe

Optical illusion or is this bend quite tight??
a483 newtown powys bypass looking south d by Dskies, on Flickr

Northbound a483 under what will be the new a483.
a483 newtown bypass heading north no the north end by Dskies, on Flickr

And this layby exit seems badly designed with little room for acceleration to rejoin the carriageway.
a483 newtown powys bypass looking south f by Dskies, on Flickr

[alans]

Wow !! that does look very tight,must be because of tele lens
Looking through the August fly thru does not show any bends like that

https://youtu.be/_vjmg6w6y5M

[Euan]

The bend does look rather tight in that picture, but a different picture in the gallery makes the bend look less sharp. Although from the other picture the bend cannot actually be seen, just the road segments on either side of the bend can be seen. Perhaps one of the pictures is indeed an optical illusion.

[PeterA5145]

Bleddy 'ell, is that an NSL sign I see? Couldn't they find a reason to restrict it to 50?

This is Powys CC territory (... Once of the last bastions of de-restricted highways. Visit before its all 40mph )

It's not in Cheshire East

[Stevie D]

The bend does look rather tight in that picture, but a different picture in the gallery makes the bend look less sharp. Although from the other picture the bend cannot actually be seen, just the road segments on either side of the bend can be seen. Perhaps one of the pictures is indeed an optical illusion.

In the picture just above, it looks to me like the bend is at the bottom of a dip, and so the foreshortening effect is what makes it look unbelievably sharp.

[Fenlander]

Before this bridge on the A16 finally opened there were some photos posted in a news story about it that made it look like a 90 degree bend followed by a near 45degree slope down as it was newbuild with no established scenery to give it any depth or perspective and was taken zoomed in from a long distance, it generated lots of worry about how dangerous the bend would be but if you look at the overhead or actually drive the road it it's barely anything at all in reality.

[AAndy]

Yes ... have a look at the video .... the bend is hardly noticable!!

https://community.alungriffiths.co.uk/p ... gust-2018/

[Owain]

Bleddy 'ell, is that an NSL sign I see? Couldn't they find a reason to restrict it to 50?

This is Powys CC territory (... Once of the last bastions of de-restricted highways. Visit before its all 40mph )

Sorry for playing the pedant, but NSL isn't de-restricted. The speed limit is 60mph if it's a single-carriageway without streetlighting.

I remember when a 40 limit was imposed on this stretch of the A36. Some yokel turned up on TV celebrating the success of her campaign "to have a speed limit imposed on this road". Err, there was already a speed limit on it ...

[Euan]

Would it really be that much of a pain if Powys CC reduced the standard speed limit on their roads? Many of the roads within Powys look quite windy and hilly, so even achieving NSL might be tricky in places. The A483 between Newtown and Llandrindod Wells would be an excellent example. Obviously not all of the roads within the CC area are like that, with the Newtown bypass itself being built to a good standard that makes the NSL easy to reach.

[Big L]

Would it really be that much of a pain if Powys CC reduced the standard speed limit on their roads? Many of the roads within Powys look quite windy and hilly, so even achieving NSL might be tricky in places. The A483 between Newtown and Llandrindod Wells would be an excellent example. Obviously not all of the roads within the CC area are like that, with the Newtown bypass itself being built to a good standard that makes the NSL easy to reach.

Just because the limit is NSL doesn't mean you must do that speed.
(It's like saying "it's a limit not a target", but arguing in favour of higher limits instead of lower speeds.)

[Euan]

Would it really be that much of a pain if Powys CC reduced the standard speed limit on their roads? Many of the roads within Powys look quite windy and hilly, so even achieving NSL might be tricky in places. The A483 between Newtown and Llandrindod Wells would be an excellent example. Obviously not all of the roads within the CC area are like that, with the Newtown bypass itself being built to a good standard that makes the NSL easy to reach.

Just because the limit is NSL doesn't mean you must do that speed.
(It's like saying "it's a limit not a target", but arguing in favour of higher limits instead of lower speeds.)

Whilst there is certainly nothing saying that driving at 40mph along a wide and straight NSL road breaks any rules, the NSL would be the advisory speed in such optimum conditions and should be treated like a target speed. Otherwise the road would become less safe as a result of greater levels of impatience amongst drivers wishing to overtake when it might not necessarily be the safest time to do so. When the road is less optimal (i.e. congested, narrow, windy) yes, the NSL is more like a limit than a target, but it would quite often not be safe to drive at such a speed anyway.

[AAndy]

Update from a Newtown town Councillor.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/loc ... al-stages/

[rhyds]

Would it really be that much of a pain if Powys CC reduced the standard speed limit on their roads? Many of the roads within Powys look quite windy and hilly, so even achieving NSL might be tricky in places. The A483 between Newtown and Llandrindod Wells would be an excellent example. Obviously not all of the roads within the CC area are like that, with the Newtown bypass itself being built to a good standard that makes the NSL easy to reach.

Yes it would. Powys is a large, sparsely populated county even by Welsh standards, and so there's a lot of long distance driving done on S2s, and lowering the speed limit from NSL to 50 would be the worst example of ridiculous road planning.

First off, as has been said by Big L the NSL is a limit, not a target, so if a driver feels unable to drive that section of road at NSL then they're free to back off the loud pedal.

Secondly, if you stick signed limits on roads like the A483 through Powys rather than NSL, then many drivers will assume its safe to drive at that limited speed along the entire section, working on the assumption that if such a limit has been set then the road has been surveyed and checked rather than someone sitting in county hall with a highlighter pen and some traffic orders.

Thirdly, Powys' road network is pretty much all S2, meaning you only need one Mansel Davies tanker, army convoy or Doris from Dolfor's Daihatsu to keep speeds well below NSL (this also leads in to my next point...)

And finally, Powys, as mentioned above is very big. Its twice the size of the next largest county (Gwynedd) and very empty (25 people per square KM, in comparison North Ayrshire has 153 people per square KM). If you're going to blanket drop speed limits on otherwise perfectly good roads then you're going to have to actively enforce them somehow, otherwise people will simply ignore them. Considering Dyfed-Powys police are claiming poverty and a lack of resources the only other possibility is average speed cameras like Sir Dinbych/Denbighshire have put on the A5104. The problem then is that everyone bunches up behind the slowest vehicle (Mansel, the Major or Doris) and can't overtake as they can't drive and do the mental maths to work out how to get their average speed down before passing the next camera. Average speed cameras are also very expensive bits of equipment, and Powys CC has no money to put them on its roads (well, it claims it doesn't...) and the Trunk Roads agency has more pressing matters to attend to.

[jimboLL]

Would it really be that much of a pain if Powys CC reduced the standard speed limit on their roads? Many of the roads within Powys look quite windy and hilly, so even achieving NSL might be tricky in places. The A483 between Newtown and Llandrindod Wells would be an excellent example. Obviously not all of the roads within the CC area are like that, with the Newtown bypass itself being built to a good standard that makes the NSL easy to reach.

Yes it would. Powys is a large, sparsely populated county even by Welsh standards, and so there's a lot of long distance driving done on S2s, and lowering the speed limit from NSL to 50 would be the worst example of ridiculous road planning.

First off, as has been said by Big L the NSL is a limit, not a target, so if a driver feels unable to drive that section of road at NSL then they're free to back off the loud pedal.

Secondly, if you stick signed limits on roads like the A483 through Powys rather than NSL, then many drivers will assume its safe to drive at that limited speed along the entire section, working on the assumption that if such a limit has been set then the road has been surveyed and checked rather than someone sitting in county hall with a highlighter pen and some traffic orders.

Thirdly, Powys' road network is pretty much all S2, meaning you only need one Mansel Davies tanker, army convoy or Doris from Dolfor's Daihatsu to keep speeds well below NSL (this also leads in to my next point...)

And finally, Powys, as mentioned above is very big. Its twice the size of the next largest county (Gwynedd) and very empty (25 people per square KM, in comparison North Ayrshire has 153 people per square KM). If you're going to blanket drop speed limits on otherwise perfectly good roads then you're going to have to actively enforce them somehow, otherwise people will simply ignore them. Considering Dyfed-Powys police are claiming poverty and a lack of resources the only other possibility is average speed cameras like Sir Dinbych/Denbighshire have put on the A5104. The problem then is that everyone bunches up behind the slowest vehicle (Mansel, the Major or Doris) and can't overtake as they can't drive and do the mental maths to work out how to get their average speed down before passing the next camera. Average speed cameras are also very expensive bits of equipment, and Powys CC has no money to put them on its roads (well, it claims it doesn't...) and the Trunk Roads agency has more pressing matters to attend to.

The bit in bold is already a massive problem in Mid Wales.

If people don't want to overtake, fair enough, but PLEASE leave enough space for those who do overtake to pull back in.

Otherwise the temptation is to try and pass 3, 4, or more vehicles in one go, which is generally not such a good idea.

[rhyds]

If you think that's bad on NSL, try driving a 50mph average speed zone. No-one dares overtake, so everyone just bunches up behind whatever driver happens to be doing less than 50mph trying to push them forwards.

[Herned]

The bit in bold is already a massive problem in Mid Wales.

Indeed. I was astounded that the new bit of the A470 north of Builth Wells didn't include any overtaking sections