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

[rhyds]

There's been a lot of coverage both on BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio Wales of the opening. Reaction was overwhelmingly positive with the only concerns being a drop in passing trade.

Annoyingly through nobody made the distinction between through traffic and people who actively want to visit Drenewydd/Newtown. As has been seen in Porthmadog if you get the long distance traffic out of the way it makes visiting shops and services much easier. I'm not the only one who'd avoid visiting towns like Drenewydd because it was so difficult to get through there.

Also, IIRC this is the last of the big projects started under the Labour-Plaid coalition of the 00s. Considering Labour's distain for spending any transport funds north of of the A465 I don't think we'll be seeing much more work (except Pont ar Ddyfi/Dyfi bridge, but that was some lib dem dealmaking!)

[Bryn666]

Annoyingly through nobody made the distinction between through traffic and people who actively want to visit Drenewydd/Newtown. As has been seen in Porthmadog if you get the long distance traffic out of the way it makes visiting shops and services much easier. I'm not the only one who'd avoid visiting towns like Drenewydd because it was so difficult to get through there.

Schrodinger's Passing Trade... "passing trade does not stop because of congestion" and "passing trade does stop thus congesting the town".

Answer: business owners are never happy so screw what they think and build the bypass. Which is what has been done. Good.

[Herned]

Astonishingly someone has already added in Streetview coverage!

[tomuk]

Having a quick look at the streetview and the signage looks a bit local.
Llandrindod Wells, Llangurig and Machynlleth as destinations. No appearance of Aberystwyth, Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Chester or Birmingham.

[jimboLL]

Having a quick look at the streetview and the signage looks a bit local.
Llandrindod Wells, Llangurig and Machynlleth as destinations. No appearance of Aberystwyth, Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Chester or Birmingham.

Or Swansea

[Big L]

I took a detour today to have a drive, and it seems very nice. So much quicker than the old slog through town.

[mikehindsonevans]

Co-incidentally, we drove through here on Saturday afternoon (9th) en-route to Swansea. The new road looked well-advanced (obviously!) and the locals were looking forward to it. Diversions on the roundabouts caused quite a bit of confusion.

Newtown should become an even more pleasant and attractive stopping point in future years.
The old road was not the best, so this bypass is *most* welcome.

[ravenbluemoon]

Nice to see use of alternating S2+1 - I think this should be used a lot more in places where a D2 wouldn't be justified. Far better than the WS2 fad of recent years which just seemed a waste of tarmac to me.

[Herned]

Having a quick look at the streetview and the signage looks a bit local.
Llandrindod Wells, Llangurig and Machynlleth as destinations. No appearance of Aberystwyth, Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Chester or Birmingham.

There seems to be a thing in mid-Wales for the places where road junctions are to be signed, hence Llangurig being signposted from miles and miles away, despite being completely insignificant as a settlement. Further north Betws-y-Coed is signposted in preference to Llandudno, and I'm sure the place where the A487 splits from the A470 is also signed far in excess of it's actual importance

[C83]

Having a quick look at the streetview and the signage looks a bit local.
Llandrindod Wells, Llangurig and Machynlleth as destinations. No appearance of Aberystwyth, Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Chester or Birmingham.

There seems to be a thing in mid-Wales for the places where road junctions are to be signed, hence Llangurig being signposted from miles and miles away, despite being completely insignificant as a settlement. Further north Betws-y-Coed is signposted in preference to Llandudno, and I'm sure the place where the A487 splits from the A470 is also signed far in excess of it's actual importance

I guess the bi-lingual signage means that where otherwise you might have the 'next town' and 'big town', there is simply 'next town' in Welsh and English unless you have a sign the size of a football pitch.

[rhyds]

Having a quick look at the streetview and the signage looks a bit local.
Llandrindod Wells, Llangurig and Machynlleth as destinations. No appearance of Aberystwyth, Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Chester or Birmingham.

There seems to be a thing in mid-Wales for the places where road junctions are to be signed, hence Llangurig being signposted from miles and miles away, despite being completely insignificant as a settlement. Further north Betws-y-Coed is signposted in preference to Llandudno, and I'm sure the place where the A487 splits from the A470 is also signed far in excess of it's actual importance

Llangurig et al are primary destinations, as you can't really sign Llanidloes (too far north and a navigational irrelevance) and Llandudno is also too far from both the A5 and A55 to be significant.

As for the A470/A487 splits these aren't signposted with primary destinations.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

Having a quick look at the streetview and the signage looks a bit local.
Llandrindod Wells, Llangurig and Machynlleth as destinations. No appearance of Aberystwyth, Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Chester or Birmingham.

There seems to be a thing in mid-Wales for the places where road junctions are to be signed, hence Llangurig being signposted from miles and miles away, despite being completely insignificant as a settlement. Further north Betws-y-Coed is signposted in preference to Llandudno, and I'm sure the place where the A487 splits from the A470 is also signed far in excess of it's actual importance

Llangurig et al are primary destinations, as you can't really sign Llanidloes (too far north and a navigational irrelevance) and Llandudno is also too far from both the A5 and A55 to be significant.

As for the A470/A487 splits these aren't signposted with primary destinations.

Llandudno is signed from the A5/A470 multiplex near Betws-y-Coed:-
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.08421 ... 6656?hl=en

[rhyds]

There seems to be a thing in mid-Wales for the places where road junctions are to be signed, hence Llangurig being signposted from miles and miles away, despite being completely insignificant as a settlement. Further north Betws-y-Coed is signposted in preference to Llandudno, and I'm sure the place where the A487 splits from the A470 is also signed far in excess of it's actual importance

Llangurig et al are primary destinations, as you can't really sign Llanidloes (too far north and a navigational irrelevance) and Llandudno is also too far from both the A5 and A55 to be significant.

As for the A470/A487 splits these aren't signposted with primary destinations.

Llandudno is signed from the A5/A470 multiplex near Betws-y-Coed:-
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.08421 ... 6656?hl=en

From there it makes sense, but further south around Dolgellau/Blaenau Betws y Coed makes more sense as that's the major divergence point for traffic going north west towards Bangor and Caergybi or north towards Llandudno Junction and the coast

[Stevie D]

Overall it looks really good, but there's a few things I'm not so keen on...

local signage repeats the road numbers that have already been given on the principal signage, adding unnecessary clutter.
flag signs combine principal and local destinations on the same sign ... bad enough in England, but makes them huge when they need to be bilingual.
don't like signs where roundabout arms are not straight up or horizontal without good reason, and there doesn't look to be a good reason here. Particularly when the local signs just use arrows that are vertical and horizontal.
lack of lane designation signs on 2-lane approaches to roundabouts. This is particularly important where the road ahead is shown as being to the right of 12 o'clock on the signs as there's not enough merge space on the exit so you need to make sure everyone is in the same lane
agree with others about the lack of long-distance primary destinations
confusing to have Newtown/Y Drenewydd and Town Centre/Canol y dref signed as separate destinations when they are the same place
disappointing that there is no permissive overtaking allowed on the '1 lane' sections ... it looks as though forward visibility would be fine in most places, and without it, you could be stuck behind slow vehicles for quite a long time without any opportunity to overtake.

[Herned]

Llangurig et al are primary destinations, as you can't really sign Llanidloes (too far north and a navigational irrelevance) and Llandudno is also too far from both the A5 and A55 to be significant.

As for the A470/A487 splits these aren't signposted with primary destinations.

My mistake, did it used to be - the northern end?

The reason Llangurig is a primary destination is because it's an 'important' junction, but this doesn't happen elsewhere in the country. Llandudno, and Aberystwyth, are the largest towns in their particular direction, places that non-locals have heard of and have some idea roughly where they are, in the same way that you get directions towards 'The North' or whatever. How many people could accurately find Llangurig?

[nowster]

Brownhills!

[Robert Kilcoyne]

Llangurig et al are primary destinations, as you can't really sign Llanidloes (too far north and a navigational irrelevance) and Llandudno is also too far from both the A5 and A55 to be significant.

As for the A470/A487 splits these aren't signposted with primary destinations.

My mistake, did it used to be - the northern end?

The reason Llangurig is a primary destination is because it's an 'important' junction, but this doesn't happen elsewhere in the country. Llandudno, and Aberystwyth, are the largest towns in their particular direction, places that non-locals have heard of and have some idea roughly where they are, in the same way that you get directions towards 'The North' or whatever. How many people could accurately find Llangurig?

Neither end of the A470/A487 multiplex is signed as a primary destination. The northern end of the multiplex is near the village of Gellilydan, at which point the A470 is signed for Betws-y-Coed and the A487 signed for Porthmadog.

This is the signage on the northbound A470 just before the roundabout with the A494 near Dolgellau; both Betws-y-Coed and Porthmadog are signed via the A470, but Porthmadog is signed as A470 (A487):-
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.74505 ... 6656?hl=en

There are other primary destinations which many people would probably not be able to locate correctly. Scotch Corner and Crianlarich are the obvious examples.

[IAN]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.50270 ... 376!8i2688

Interesting shot on Streetview - If you look carefully on the bridge you can see a protest banner. 'Victim of the Bypass'. Apparently a local property owner is unhappy about the compensation he received. Story in the Shropshire Star, scroll down to see the photo.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/loc ... pen-today/

Ian (M5 Driver)

[lefthandedspanner]

The reason Llangurig is a primary destination is because it's an 'important' junction, but this doesn't happen elsewhere in the country. Llandudno, and Aberystwyth, are the largest towns in their particular direction, places that non-locals have heard of and have some idea roughly where they are, in the same way that you get directions towards 'The North' or whatever. How many people could accurately find Llangurig?

In the Scottish highlands, the similarly small Crianlarich is a Primary Destination signposted from many miles away, as it's where the A82 (the major north-south route) and A85 (a major east-west route) meet. In England, Honiton and Puckeridge were signposted in the same way in the pre-motorway era. It's common practise in large, sparsely-populated areas.

[Chris5156]

don't like signs where roundabout arms are not straight up or horizontal without good reason, and there doesn't look to be a good reason here. Particularly when the local signs just use arrows that are vertical and horizontal.

Not all of your list troubles me greatly, but this one is a huge annoyance for me. The point of a map-type sign is to simplify the layout. Roundabout arms at right angles are clear and unambiguous; with every arm you skew off at another angle you’re adding complexity for the driver to interpret, and unless your roundabout has its approaches at really unexpected angles, it’s completely irrelevant.

Just because you can match up the angles on the son precisely according to the angles of the actual roads doesn’t mean you should!