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Truvelo wrote:I'm more concerned about the two white circles on the A33. Are these going to be GSJs are at-grade? I suspect the whole Spencers Wood bypass will become ridden with roundabouts and traffic lights with the inevitable reduction in the speed limit.
The whole Reading to Basingstoke A33 is a mess of junctions and reduced speed limits anyway - the bypass is largely just a stacking space for the 2 roundabouts either end, I knew as soon at the P&R went in that there would be the inevitable speed limit sign creep down the road. Cant see them doing any GSJs.
Anyone know what the theoretical capacity of the new bigger J11 is and what the current traffic flows are (to ascertain if it has the capacity)
No reason to add to it. All they need, is one large GSJ between the 2 circles. Access roads can then snake off around the site, connecting all of it to the A33. A bypass is a bypass, even if its called a distributor or whateveeerr. Local stuff should not impinge on its freeflow design.
There were big debates in the 80's about allowing Reading to spill over the M4, mostly from the Basingstoke area. The fear is once it starts, development will just creep southwards, until eventually, they join up. Any planning restrictions that exist now, may not exist in 20 or 30 years time.
There's a plan to widen the A629 around Salterhebble Hill at the south end of Halifax, which is a particularly nasty bottleneck at the moment. The scheme mainly involves widening the road so that it's two lanes wide all the way from the town centre to the M62, which should be a definite improvement.
Full details here, including diagrams. Work is apparently scheduled to start soon.
It's probably not a coincidence that Calderdale Royal Hospital is right by this bottleneck, and now that the A&E has shut at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, the hospital has to serve Huddersfield and district as well, which means ambulances now have to fight their way through a near-stationary logjam much more frequently than they used to.
lefthandedspanner wrote:There's a plan to widen the A629 around Salterhebble Hill at the south end of Halifax, which is a particularly nasty bottleneck at the moment.
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lefthandedspanner wrote:There's a plan to widen the A629 around Salterhebble Hill at the south end of Halifax, which is a particularly nasty bottleneck at the moment.
Nearly, it's the southbound approach to that junction, coming out of Halifax; the one on CBRD is the northbound approach, going in.
In my view the northbound approach is not as easily fixable, simply because it was designed to join a road that was never built - the western bypass that would have linked it up to A58 Burdock Way/Aachen Way in town. Getting that road built would relieve the junction, but given the craggy, built-up nature of the route it would be a very difficult job.
I expect we are going to see a lot more local projects soon with the announcement of extra funding for tackling dangerous streches of road. Perhaps some re-alignments of dodgy corners? We are yet to find out, but there is £1.1bn up for grabs! Some of it comes rather out of the blue!
lefthandedspanner wrote:There's a plan to widen the A629 around Salterhebble Hill at the south end of Halifax, which is a particularly nasty bottleneck at the moment.
Nearly, it's the southbound approach to that junction, coming out of Halifax; the one on CBRD is the northbound approach, going in.
In my view the northbound approach is not as easily fixable, simply because it was designed to join a road that was never built - the western bypass that would have linked it up to A58 Burdock Way/Aachen Way in town. Getting that road built would relieve the junction, but given the craggy, built-up nature of the route it would be a very difficult job.
The Calder and Hebble is on the agenda too.
I actually worked on the earliest stages of the Calderdale WYTF+ concepts, along with Haydn. What we came up with has mostly been adopted in principle and refined.
The current works at Shaw Hill for instance are based off CAD drawings we both did in 2011.
Bryn Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already. She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
It came to my attention because it seems to involve a fair amount of work improving junction 45 on the A14 near Rougham which is only about ten years old in its current form.
Nearly, it's the southbound approach to that junction, coming out of Halifax; the one on CBRD is the northbound approach, going in.
In my view the northbound approach is not as easily fixable, simply because it was designed to join a road that was never built - the western bypass that would have linked it up to A58 Burdock Way/Aachen Way in town. Getting that road built would relieve the junction, but given the craggy, built-up nature of the route it would be a very difficult job.
The Calder and Hebble is on the agenda too.
I actually worked on the earliest stages of the Calderdale WYTF+ concepts, along with Haydn. What we came up with has mostly been adopted in principle and refined.
The current works at Shaw Hill for instance are based off CAD drawings we both did in 2011.
Small world, eh?
It's nice to see something being done about it; once the works are finished, getting into or out of town should be a much less tedious process.
I explorationed the new road to Watford General Hospital. It's a spur off that gyratory round the Bushey Arches. The first bit through Oxhey Park doesn't allow turns onto the A4178. Basically, it is not to be used a cut through from the Arches to West Watford. It is for the hospital only. It goes over a bridge over what will hopefully be the Met line soon, giving a good view of the muddy strip where the track will be laid. I think I even identifed where one of the new stations will be at a new roundabout with one arm leading to a dead end by the rail land. General traffic can't go straight on to Vicarage Road. It's only for buses.
It's nice to see something being done about it; once the works are finished, getting into or out of town should be a much less tedious process.
Hopefully so, although you'll not appreciate the full benefits until Calder and Hebble is done too.
What amazes me is we were pained in 2011 to avoid the need for CPO of the properties on the west side of Salterhebble Hill, but according to the council themselves it looks like they're doing that anyway now.
Bryn Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already. She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
In Reading there is a little bridge under the railway - originally it was a pair of bridges although one has been widened/replaced. They have been causing a bottleneck for decades as you can see big roads either side with Portman Rd even designed to be able to be dualled - originally it was all to have been sorted as part of a large rail viaduct development but a greedy landowner delaying has pushed it back so far it now has to go through another tendering process as the contractors have all left site - when done it will allow buses etc to cross the railway west of caversham rd freeing up a lot of options for Readings traffic planning
Well the burger lane at Elmbridge Court is more or less finished now and all that there's left to do is widen both A40 exits and the roundabout and then everything will be done.
Beardy5632 wrote:Well the burger lane at Elmbridge Court is more or less finished now and all that there's left to do is widen both A40 exits and the roundabout and then everything will be done.
But just when I thought that was it with roundabout works around Glos, apparently they're going to be doing more work at the Over one next year.
Why do they never show any white vans on these plans?
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Wakefield Eastern Relief Road,
will be the A6194 according to the road markings at the southern end junction (Doncaster Road) and it all looks ready to open at that end.
The northern end has 3 exits and the minor one onto Ferry Lane has been tied in since last Monday (13/02/17) with traffic deviating around the kerbed traffic island. Houses are already going up on the adjacent land by the main exit close to Pinderfields Hosp.
I've noticed as the road passes the old colliery shaft, east of Eastmoor there seems to be a bit of a blind summit. We'll have to see how it works in practice. I've read it's to be a 30mph road.
There's several projects going on around Bodmin at the moment. Most of them are junction re-modelling and cycle priority schemes, and after driving through there the other day, the diversion route is very confusing.
The only works in Bodmin that have caught my eye is a new roundabout at Callywith Junction (the fork junction north of Bodmin between the A30 and A38). To be fair, it looks quite well designed. It's being put in to improve access to the new Callywith College, the Bodmin version of Truro and Penwith College (and part of the same group).
An observation that I've made lately is that Cornwall Council seem to have got a grip on road maintenance at the moment. Roundabouts are being resurfaced, high friction surfacing has been removed and resurfaced where it has become rutted, full lane width patches on the A394, long sections of resurfacing on the A39 south of the A30, double mini-roundabouts and dodgy junctions being replaced, the list goes on. The only fly in the ointment is this road, which was recently surface dressed, but it hasn't stuck properly and it's just pretty terrible to drive on, to be honest. However, in the grand scheme of things they're doing pretty well!
A370 West Wick roundabout in Weston super Mare, 4 months to add traffic light signalling and an extra lane on what is not clear, either bransby way or chruchfield way. In anycase, once the new 10,000 homes project is built in the fields nearby it'll more than need it, as they're planning a new road link to the A371 from the A370 despite the fact the A370 and the A371 meet up at the NEXT roundabout if you head west a mile further.
Ken Skates officially opens Llangefni Link Road
Economy and Infrastructure Secretary Ken Skates was on Anglesey to officially open the first two sections of the Llangefni Link Road.
Tuesday 14 March 2017
The £4 million project has been funded by the Welsh Government, Isle of Anglesey County Council, Grŵp Llandrillo-Menai and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
The new link road will allow major expansion of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai's Coleg Menai, Llangefni Campus and when complete will run from the A5114 junction with the Llangefni Industrial Estate, circling the south and east of the town before crossing the B5420 and connecting to the Coleg Menai site, providing traffic relief for the town centre.
I have a vague idea I heard about this several years ago but then forgot about it.
Wakefield Eastern Relief Road (WERR) (It's not a bypass - official) is to open this Thursday 27April 2017 at 2pm according to Wakefield Council web. Not mentioned but read elsewhere, cyclists will be allowed on at 1pm to use the dedicated cycle lane. http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/Pages/News/PR8532.aspx
