M5/A40 Cheltenham Improvements

[Richardf]

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/n ... 989433.amp

Anyone else seen this? Those of you who know the area is this a good or bad scheme do you think?

[Chris5156]

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/n ... 989433.amp

Anyone else seen this? Those of you who know the area is this a good or bad scheme do you think?

Haven’t seen it before, but from what detail is there, it looks like an already congested dual carriageway that passes through signalised roundabouts is going to get a new signalised roundabout. Or, perhaps, an existing signalised roundabout is going to be upgraded into a bigger signalised roundabout.

[Bryn666]

"Thousands of jobs".

There isn't the capacity to absorb thousands of car commuters. So what have they suggested? "Some improvements" for cycling, meaning that a couple of token crossings and shared footpaths will be built.

Such short sighted nonsense planning yet again.

[roadtester]

I'm not sure that it has much to do with the M5, which AFAICT is unaffected.

[Bryn666]

I'm not sure that it has much to do with the M5, which AFAICT is unaffected.

Apart from extra traffic, possibly. There's certainly no design effect on the motorway.

[roadtester]

I do know this area fairly well (my late parents used to live nearby).

It mainly looks like tinkering but I'm not sure what else can be done, given the constraints. I suppose the real answer is to step back and look at the bigger picture, which I think is all about providing some sort of proper A40 bypass for Cheltenham, if that could ever be done.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

It mainly looks like tinkering but I'm not sure what else can be done, given the constraints. I suppose the real answer is to step back and look at the bigger picture, which I think is all about providing some sort of proper A40 bypass for Cheltenham, if that could ever be done.

Logically, any A40 Cheltenham bypass would be routed over the A436/A417, but you would need to resolve the issue of the Air Balloon roundabout and its approaches.

[ScottB5411]

It mainly looks like tinkering but I'm not sure what else can be done, given the constraints. I suppose the real answer is to step back and look at the bigger picture, which I think is all about providing some sort of proper A40 bypass for Cheltenham, if that could ever be done.

Logically, any A40 Cheltenham bypass would be routed over the A436/A417, but you would need to resolve the issue of the Air Balloon roundabout and its approaches.

Tying this in with the A417 upgrade would have been a great opportunity to upgrade the A436 to form a by-pass of Cheltenham, but I'm sure it hasn't even been thought of to future proof for that possibility

[Richardf]

I'm not sure that it has much to do with the M5, which AFAICT is unaffected.

Apart from extra traffic, possibly. There's certainly no design effect on the motorway.

There is a small bit about a lane from M5 SB to A40 EB. Maybe a filter lane past the M5 roundabout to the improved/widened roundabout? But apart from that nothing to improve J11 M5 at all which will have to cope with the extra traffic created by these other developments.

[M19]

The title of this post needs amending to replace "improvements" with "alterations".

[Richardf]

The title of this post needs amending to replace "improvements" with "alterations".

So you don't think these works will 'improve' things then?

[SouthWest Philip]

In itself, M5 jnc 11 handles the traffic volumes well. But there is a flaw in that traffic queuing along the A40 into Cheltenham sometimes reaches back along the roundabout leading to M5 n/b to A40 e/b traffic blocking the access to the roundabout for M5 s/b to A40 w/b traffic. This is turn can cause dangerous queuing back onto the motorway mainline with some choosing to queue on the hard shoulder. A simple fix would be a box junction on the roundabout, but the angles of entry at the roundabout means any box junction would need to be too big.

In a way, it might be better if the roundabout at jnc 11 ran anticlockwise! This would work on the same principle as a diverging diamond and reduce conflicts at the junction.

[Owain]

In itself, M5 jnc 11 handles the traffic volumes well. But there is a flaw in that traffic queuing along the A40 into Cheltenham sometimes reaches back along the roundabout leading to M5 n/b to A40 e/b traffic blocking the access to the roundabout for M5 s/b to A40 w/b traffic. This is turn can cause dangerous queuing back onto the motorway mainline with some choosing to queue on the hard shoulder. A simple fix would be a box junction on the roundabout, but the angles of entry at the roundabout means any box junction would need to be too big.

In a way, it might be better if the roundabout at jnc 11 ran anticlockwise! This would work on the same principle as a diverging diamond and reduce conflicts at the junction.

I've never had any problem at all on that junction, but my movements have almost always been M5 s/b to A40 w/b and vice versa. If the situation re. access to Cheltenham is as bad as you suggest, surely the ideal solution would be the A40 flowing onto a new bypass for the town which would pass to the south of the park & ride near GCHQ. If something like that were built, there surely wouldn't be any need to touch the M5/A40 junction at all.

I do realise that we're talking fantasy roads now though!

[roadtester]

In itself, M5 jnc 11 handles the traffic volumes well. But there is a flaw in that traffic queuing along the A40 into Cheltenham sometimes reaches back along the roundabout leading to M5 n/b to A40 e/b traffic blocking the access to the roundabout for M5 s/b to A40 w/b traffic. This is turn can cause dangerous queuing back onto the motorway mainline with some choosing to queue on the hard shoulder. A simple fix would be a box junction on the roundabout, but the angles of entry at the roundabout means any box junction would need to be too big.

In a way, it might be better if the roundabout at jnc 11 ran anticlockwise! This would work on the same principle as a diverging diamond and reduce conflicts at the junction.

I've never had any problem at all on that junction, but my movements have almost always been M5 s/b to A40 w/b and vice versa. If the situation re. access to Cheltenham is as bad as you suggest, surely the ideal solution would be the A40 flowing onto a new bypass for the town which would pass to the south of the park & ride near GCHQ. If something like that were built, there surely wouldn't be any need to touch the M5/A40 junction at all.

I do realise that we're talking fantasy roads now though!

When they rebuilt GCHQ a few years ago, it might have been an idea to move it to an out-of-town site rather than staying in the same area - that would have relieved that end of town quite a bit, I suspect.

[Graham]

When they rebuilt GCHQ a few years ago, it might have been an idea to move it to an out-of-town site rather than staying in the same area - that would have relieved that end of town quite a bit, I suspect.

This was considered - one of the options was to move the department to the Gloucester Business Park. Ultimately, though, this would have meant more (and longer) car journeys in and around the Cheltenham/Gloucester area, given that much of the workforce lives in Cheltenham.

I have always felt that the western end of Cheltenham copes better than you would expect. Before the rebuilding, most of the workforce was based in the eastern side of Cheltenham. The eastern side of town now flows far better than it used to, but the impact on the western side has not been as bad as was initially feared. Partly, this is down to a significant project carried out within the department to manage parking and carsharing - a project that I was personally involved in.