The A2500 is born

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Darren
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The A2500 is born

Post by Darren »

Not quite sure when it happened, but the B2231 has now become the A2500. The signs still say B2231 throughout and the only indication of the name change was a report in the local rag about our MP, who was going on about how the A2500 (the road to the east end of the Isle of Sheppey) needs to be improved. News to me, as it's been the B2231 for 30 years. Before that it was the A250 and indeed all the signs used to have patches on them with B2231 on them, stuck over the A250 legend.

Anyway, according to this:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?gi ... -05a.339.0

the MP actually said:

"I believe there is potential to expand the prison estate, solving in advance the undoubted problem of finding suitable sites for future prisons, but the current road from the A249 to Eastchurch, where the prisons are located—the newly designated A2500—is a single carriageway that can barely cope with the current traffic flow, let alone any expansion of the prison estate. The A2500 will need to be upgraded soon, which would be an added bonus to the communities at the east end of the Isle of Sheppey, because it will help to reinvigorate the local economy in one of the deprived areas I mentioned. If we can get extra tourists going to the historical camp sites and the traditional seaside town of Leysdown, we can reinvigorate the whole of that area."

So there you have it. A new road name communicated by an MP in some sort of debating thing.

Incidentally, the road used to be the A250, then a portion of it was renamed the B2008. That portion was latterly changed back to A250, then the whole thing became the B2231. It's now the A2500 - meaning some parts of it have had four different numbers! (It's also unusual in being an A-road, then a B-road, then an A-road, then a B-road, then an A-road again).

The whole idea of this is that it means there's more money available for maintaining the road. That means the talk of lowering the speed limit to 50 will doubtless now come true (apparently it couldn't be lowered to 50 while it was a B-road as that'd cost too much).
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skiddaw05
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by skiddaw05 »

Something to add to the Wiki!

I do wish they'd ask us first before issuing nasty numbers like this :lol:
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si404
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by si404 »

Darren wrote:Incidentally, the road used to be the A250, then a portion of it was renamed the B2008. That portion was latterly changed back to A250, then the whole thing became the B2231. It's now the A2500 - meaning some parts of it have had four different numbers! (It's also unusual in being an A-road, then a B-road, then an A-road, then a B-road, then an A-road again).
Looking at SABRE maps (sorry, lazy link) - the road in question was B2008 from the beginning, but then got upgraded to A250 and then downgraded to B2231 - other than the now bypassed bit through Eastchurch (and a little bit to the west) which was A250 all the time until it got cut back.

What I want to know is is it all the way, or just to Eastchurch (like the A250 was originally), that is now A2500
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Big Nick
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Big Nick »

So why not just call it the A2231 then?

I'm struggling to imagine the amount of traffic on this road that means it needs dualling, but then I don't live there. I suppose the caravan/chalet sites get lots of use.
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Chris5156
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Chris5156 »

Big Nick wrote:So why not just call it the A2231 then?

I'm struggling to imagine the amount of traffic on this road that means it needs dualling, but then I don't live there. I suppose the caravan/chalet sites get lots of use.
I don't think dualling is necessary, but from limited experience the traffic that does use it is prone to getting held up because it's narrow and poorly aligned, so it feels busy and it's very slow during the daytime.

I remember, for example, having to wait about five minutes while a bus and a lorry found a way to get past each other; there's also a surprising amount of traffic entering and leaving, junctions with bad visibility, pedestrian crossings, etc. The Eastchurch bypass is relatively new but is still clogged up with a couple of minuscule roundabouts.

What would sort it out is some modest widening and a little realignment - a decent width carriageway, smoother corners, good visibility, perhaps an overtaking lane here and there, that sort of thing.
Darren
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Darren »

Chris5156 wrote:
Big Nick wrote:So why not just call it the A2231 then?

I'm struggling to imagine the amount of traffic on this road that means it needs dualling, but then I don't live there. I suppose the caravan/chalet sites get lots of use.
I don't think dualling is necessary, but from limited experience the traffic that does use it is prone to getting held up because it's narrow and poorly aligned, so it feels busy and it's very slow during the daytime.
The road is the main road that crosses Sheppey, a place which goes from around 40,000 residents during winter to over 60,000 during the height of summer - and those tourists often chug along at 35mph, much to the frustration of locals. Throw in other slow traffic and it's often choked, although you do get the odd day when you can rattle along at the full 60mph and it's like a breath of fresh air.

There are only two good bits of road for overtaking and all too often it's busy the other way. That leads to quite a lot of hair-raising overtaking by others, you quite often see people having to pull in rather sharply! Side note: there are usually one or two people that manage to trash their cars (and sometimes their lives) on that road each year. It's frustrating being held being someone who's doing 35 for no real reason, but that's life. I don't get annoyed at the tractors and lorries either, as they don't really have a choice when it comes to going faster!)
pedestrian crossings, etc. The Eastchurch bypass is relatively new but is still clogged up with a couple of minuscule roundabouts.
The main problem is the vast amount of house-building that's gone on these last 25 years. The road used to be quite empty much of the time, but they've added more and more estates around Minster and all those people spill onto the Lower Road every day as they head off the Isle to work. The bosses' boss is one such person, he commented about how busy the road was one day. My reply was quite pithy: "Well, it wasn't nearly as bad before they built that estate where you live!"
What would sort it out is some modest widening and a little realignment - a decent width carriageway, smoother corners, good visibility, perhaps an overtaking lane here and there, that sort of thing.
Yes, there are quite a few spots that I find myself slowling to 50 as I approach - a relatively blind summit, a bend that often has overgrown grass cutting visibility, that sort of thing. The road hasn't really been touched, aside from the Eastchurch bypass, since the 60s. That's when it was widened a little, and I daresay it's time it was widened again. Then again, resurfacing a mile of the road further towards Leysdown and planting 50 mph signs along a 2-mile length of it cost over £180,000 - so I dread to think how much properly sorting that road out would cost!

At least it looks like it might get upgraded if a new prison were to be built at Eastchurch. The sole reason we got that bypass (which was 20 years old last November) is because of HMP Elmley. That middle roundabout is actually quite fun btw, there's a certain line you can take around it if you're going straight on which means you can go around it at 30mph easily. You can always spot those from outside the local area as they slow to an absolute crawl!
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Brenley Corner
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Brenley Corner »

Really sorry to drag this topic from the murky past but this is simply to advise that the road is now fully signed as the A2500 from the A249 to the start of the Eastchurch bypass. The Eastchurch bypass itself and onwards to Leysdown is still the B2231. This was observed during a trip along there earlier this week, and I will shortly be a regular commuter along Kents newest road number.

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A303Paul
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by A303Paul »

This strikes me as very silly and short sighted. The A2500 should have been reserved for a downgrade of the A25, which would have enabled the A282 to be renumbered as A25.
Fluid Dynamics
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Fluid Dynamics »

Sorry, with regards the original post is the road really a priority for funding in Kent. After all it only connects Leysdown to the outside world and Sheppey has had loads of investment in the form of the A249 and new Rushenden Link Road.

Surely dualling the A2 around Dover, finishing the slips on the A2 Canterbury bypass, M20 J10a/A2070 Ashford Improvements, A21 Tonbridge Pembury/Kippings Cross Lamberhust and Lamberhurst Flimwell, M25 J5 East Facing Slips, A228 Colts Hill bypass, Borough Green Bypass and the Leeds/Langley bypass south of Maidstone are higher priorities in the county.
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si404
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by si404 »

A303Paul wrote:This strikes me as very silly and short sighted. The A2500 should have been reserved for a downgrade of the A25
Nah, just add a zero on the end of the A25 and A250 (which is shorter than the A2500) if you want to downgrade the A25 for some reason (been well over 25 years since it's been bypassed by the M25 and still it lives...)
which would have enabled the A282 to be renumbered as A25.
But everyone thinks it's the M25 anyway, so what would be the point? ;)
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Darren
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Darren »

Fluid Dynamics wrote:Sorry, with regards the original post is the road really a priority for funding in Kent.
All it is is a renumbering, the bit from Eastchurch to Leysdown remains a B-road.

Since the upgrade very little has gone on, other than a few old signs being swapped out for new ones and a selection of patches applied to those signs which were kept. There's been no major work, other than to repair some potholes near its western end. That failed and after a few days they were back worse than ever; a different contractor was called in to repair them and this time it lasted about 2 weeks before one of the potholes reappeared.

The number A2500 was chosen because A250 (the road's old number) was reallocated to the ex-A249 in the early 80s, once the Brielle Way was built across the marshes.

Incidentally the local paper often has people bemoaning the A250/B2231, as the traffic on it during the rush hour is notorious... the cluster of prisons accounts for a lot of it, but from March to September it gets overwhelmed with tourists. Even during the winter you more often than not can't do 60 for very long, whereas just a few years back it was quite unusual to be held up on 2 or 3 days in a row.

The trouble, as with much of the SE, is that they keep bunging up houses but the accompanying infrastructure isn't there. For example, there's a set of traffic lights near the western end of the A2500 and on a weekday it's not unusual for the queues to stretch back to Cowsted Corner, a set of roundabouts half a mile away. That then clogs up the roundabouts, causing even longer delays. In fact, I often take the old A249 back home now to avoid the crush at the main roundabout (as you have priority over those coming from the new A249). When the Lionhope project which created the traffic lights and the nearby estates was approved back in the 90s, there was a clause saying that a roundabout would be paid for by the developers if traffic reached a certain level. It has, but no roundabout is forthcoming. The developers say they're under no obligation and they intend to carry on building. And so the road will just gum up even more...
Fluid Dynamics
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Fluid Dynamics »

Isn't Sheppey part of the Thames Gateway? Surely Swale BC should be using Section 106 funding or the Community Infrastructure Levy to ensure developers make contributions towards the local infrastructure?

I have used the route a couple of times at weekends and didn't think it too bad west of Eastchurch. I assume during the week the main commute is off the island even considering the prisons? I understand that the local steel works, a major employer closed recently?
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by James H »

Darren wrote: There's been no major work, other than to repair some potholes near its western end. That failed and after a few days they were back worse than ever; a different contractor was called in to repair them and this time it lasted about 2 weeks before one of the potholes reappeared.
I can vouch for this, they are terrible. One of which has damaged one of my alloy wheels beyond repair and I can't imagine the council will be willing to do anything about it
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Ben302
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Ben302 »

I use this road daily from Cowstead to the Eastchurch by-pass and "those lights" ruin what is normally a smooth drive (apart from the many tractors) The surface seems to be getting worse along it now especially the sections that are surfaced in SMA!!

What the road really needs is to be rebuilt to an equal standard of the Eastchurch by-pass section with verge margins and central turning areas forsome of the frequently used side routes and a roundabout at Barton Hill Drive. Easily acheivable with minimal land take.

The only bit I'd make D2 is the section from Barton Hill drive to Cowstead.
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Re: The A2500 is born

Post by Darren »

Ben302 wrote: Sat Feb 23, 2013 22:47 I use this road daily from Cowstead to the Eastchurch by-pass and "those lights" ruin what is normally a smooth drive (apart from the many tractors) The surface seems to be getting worse along it now especially the sections that are surfaced in SMA!!

What the road really needs is to be rebuilt to an equal standard of the Eastchurch by-pass section with verge margins and central turning areas forsome of the frequently used side routes and a roundabout at Barton Hill Drive. Easily acheivable with minimal land take.

The only bit I'd make D2 is the section from Barton Hill drive to Cowstead.
9 years later...

"Those lights" are now a distant memory, thank goodness, and there was enough money left in the pot to widen the A2500 to four lanes for just over a hundred yards at Cowstead. A promising start, just a shame they couldn't carry that along for the rest of the way to Barton Hill. It does, however, still clog up every evening. There was talk of widening the Cowstead to Barton Hill part by a few feet (to match the Eastchurch bypass), but it was tied to a development of 700 houses at Barton Hill. That development was rejected by the council, then overturned by the planning inspector - and his approval was minus the widening. No great loss, mind you, the disruption that would have caused wouldn't have been worth the outcome.

The A2500 is now a fair bit busier than the A249 heading westwards, with 23398 AADT in 2020 versus 17268 for the A249. The latter was dualled 16 years ago - the Highways Agency, as was, at least had some foresight.

A new planning application has gone in for 650 houses a bit further along the road (adding to a few hundred to the north) and the mitigation involves another small roundabout and lowering the limit from 60 to 40 - not unreasonable or unexpected if they're urbanising the whole area. They also propose putting traffic lights at Cowstead Corner, on the A249 mainline, which is naive in the extreme. No mention of dualling the A2500 up to Barton Hill, of course, but I'll continue to push for it where I can.
(The four lane bit of the A2500 wasn't originally going to happen, but a bit of nudging helped there! It helped that the modelling software KCC used showed no congestion whatsoever, even though local knowledge said otherwise.)

Incidentally further east our local councillors have been pushing hard against any improvement to the sole paved route into Leysdown. They've learned their lesson from the rest of the Isle and know that improvements just lead to thousands of houses being dumped on the land!
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