Norwich western link and orbital bypasses

[Owain]

Not far from Bath - Bristol. That's something of a by-pass/orbital desert given its size and importance.

Bristol, Leeds, and Sheffield are all nightmares if you're on the wrong side from the place you want to go.

[Rogndave]

Peterborough (pop 215k) is very well served by its parkway ring, which is almost fully grade separated on its northern, southern, and western sides, with only two roundabouts at the eastern extremities.

[roadtester]

Peterborough (pop 215k) is very well served by its parkway ring, which is almost fully grade separated on its northern, southern, and western sides, with only two roundabouts at the eastern extremities.

Good point.

I was also just wondering about MK, with its extensive dualling and grid system. If we take the outermost DCs on each side, can we call that an orbital?

[AnOrdinarySABREUser]

I see, thanks to a golf course, that there’s an unnecessary roundabout with the A1067 where it could otherwise be realigned to improve traffic flow along the A1270.

[owen b]

It appears the Norwich western link road, which would complete the northern distributor road (A1270) between the A1067 and A47, has been delayed again, due to rising costs and more environmental concerns (bats this time). It was always rather ambitious proposal and somewhat at odds with current thinking, but if it ever does get built it his would mean Norwich would have a completely dualled orbital bypass

And this got me thinking, I can’t bring to mind any other cities or towns of comparable size to Norwich (or many larger ones) which have such a bypass. Any offers?

Chester is a near miss, with the missing slip roads M53 - M56 at the north east corner. Admittedly Chester is rather smaller than Norwich and the M56 / A494 section is only fairly loosely a bypass of Chester.

[jackal]

Peterborough (pop 215k) is very well served by its parkway ring, which is almost fully grade separated on its northern, southern, and western sides, with only two roundabouts at the eastern extremities.

Clockwise there are 4 roundabouts, two on the western side (1 is omitted anticlockwise due to a SLT). Of course I agree it is great provision for its size though.

[KeithW]

Good point.

I was also just wondering about MK, with its extensive dualling and grid system. If we take the outermost DCs on each side, can we call that an orbital?

Not really, I did a LOT of commuting between Oxford and Cambridge and the problem with MK was that while the individual sections of road may be OK there are just so many roundabouts between the A421 at Brogborough and the A421 at Standing Way, 17 as I recall in a little over 10 miles. The A5 on the other hand is a quick and easy way to get from the Kelly's Kitchen Roundabout to the Old Stratford Roundabout. I tried Groveway but its largely S2 and also roundabout hell.

What is really needed is a southern bypass of MK.

[Bryn666]

What this thread teaches us is we are actually terrible at ring roads. Most places do not have a complete ring of any form, and those that do find they're not always connected up properly.

My favourite example will always be when the A5085 in Preston was signed as a ring road despite being a straight line 1930s bypass.

[jackal]

Crawley?

[Paul237]

Is there even a large demand for a Norwich western link? I suppose it'd take pressure off the B1535 which, from looking at Google Maps, is possibly used as a bit of a rat run for eastbound A47 traffic that is heading to the north Norfolk coast.

[Bryn666]

Is there even a large demand for a Norwich western link? I suppose it'd take pressure off the B1535 which, from looking at Google Maps, is possibly used as a bit of a rat run for eastbound A47 traffic that is heading to the north Norfolk coast.

There isn't at the moment but the road is being built so Norwich can invite people to build loads of houses around it.

We're still designing car dependent suburbs in 2024. Wild.

[royal]

Exactly that. Hence why the NDR is called a Distributor Road instead of a bypass, as is common with most new build roads now.

I think it is fairly unusual for the case in Norwich, whereby the NDR is built D2 instead of S2 from the start, not sure this capacity is needed at present but nice to see they’re planning in advance for all the new developments.

In terms of need and capacity, I would have thought the full dualling of the A47 through Norfolk would have taken priority over this Norwich orbital route.