The study of British and Irish roads - their construction, numbering, history, mapping, past and future official roads proposals and general roads musings.
There is a separate forum for Street Furniture (traffic lights, street lights, road signs etc).
Registered users get access to other forums including discussions about other forms of transport, driving, fantasy roads and wishlists, and roads quizzes.
jackal wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 09:44
Wansford to Sutton statutory consultation is now open. It's a lower quality scheme than Blofield with no new GSJs, though the freeflow left turn off the A1 has a huge radius.
That seems pretty disappointing/pointless - and the 2037 date in the video seems to suggest it will take the best part of twenty years to deliver this modest upgrade.
I suppose one question is whether the new long A1-A47 slip is something that could be incorporated into an eventual more ambitious proper GSJing of the junction or whether it would it be lost.
The Blofield one looks much better, though.
It opens in 2021/22. No idea why the simulation is for 2037 (maybe so the plants look nice?). Also tbf the scheme does plug a single carriageway gap in the A47 and cut down on at-grade junctions.
The movements between A1N and A47E seem to be dominant, so I think they're essentially building the easy half of the final layout you'd want for that junction.
My qualms with the scheme are mostly to do with the Nene Way roundabout, which is at odds with the expressway aspirations for the route. They should've gone for the GSJ there (see 'option 1a' drawing in middle of previous page).
roadtester wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:01
That seems pretty disappointing/pointless - and the 2037 date in the video seems to suggest it will take the best part of twenty years to deliver this modest upgrade.
I suppose one question is whether the new long A1-A47 slip is something that could be incorporated into an eventual more ambitious proper GSJing of the junction or whether it would it be lost.
The Blofield one looks much better, though.
It opens in 2021/22. No idea why the simulation is for 2037 (maybe so the plants look nice?). Also tbf the scheme does plug a single carriageway gap in the A47 and cut down on at-grade junctions.
I suspect that the 2037 date reflects 20 years after the "base modelling" - ie. it's a simulation of how the junction will operate after 20 years of further traffic growth.
The video is produced as part of the traffic modelling software although with some nice visualisations that definitely aren't in the basic version!
I hope this scheme will also include lengthening of the slips road at the junctions. As they are very short and it’s often an area where accidents happen from cars just pulling out.
I don’t mind the lack of a GSJ as I hope in the medium term this part of the A1 can be moved onto a new alignment from P’boro to Stamford.
Also I hope a few VMS’s or MS4s will be included as they should be for trunk road junctions.
I popped a consultation response in this morning, with predictable demands - GSJ not roundabout for the Nene Way junction, and asking for clarification about the A47 -> A1 northbound movement, are the slips going to be improved? The A1 north here is on quite an incline and it's always a pinchpoint as vehicles move out to allow people to join.
But at least something is being done and if they end up building what's in the consultation, I'd still be fairly happy with that.
ChrisH wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:14
I suspect that the 2037 date reflects 20 years after the "base modelling" - ie. it's a simulation of how the junction will operate after 20 years of further traffic growth.
Design year is usually taken to be 15 years after opening of the scheme, i.e. 2022 + 15.
thatapanydude wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:28
I hope this scheme will also include lengthening of the slips road at the junctions. As they are very short and it’s often an area where accidents happen from cars just pulling out.
I don’t mind the lack of a GSJ as I hope in the medium term this part of the A1 can be moved onto a new alignment from P’boro to Stamford.
I assume or hope that you mean the slips onto the A1 which seem dangerously short to me.
It's one of the bits of road where I try to strategically position myself in L2 as I approach the junction (especially northbound) so that I don't get barged into by traffic entering the A1
ChrisH wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:14
I suspect that the 2037 date reflects 20 years after the "base modelling" - ie. it's a simulation of how the junction will operate after 20 years of further traffic growth.
Design year is usually taken to be 15 years after opening of the scheme, i.e. 2022 + 15.
Certainly, the "tree screens showing planting after 15 years" is an illustration which I remember from the M60 widening past Sale (which must be around 15 years ago).
Mike Hindson-Evans. Never argue with a conspiracy theorist.
They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
doebag wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2016 08:41
IME, immediately west of the A1, a large percentage of A47 HGV traffic is accessing the gravel pits south of the A47, then it seems to tail off towards Leicester.
The A605 is too convenient a shortcut between the A1 and the A14.
As for the flyover at the Pullover roundabout A47/A17 I wonder if that will ever happen. It must been over thirty years after the by-pass had been built and the earthworks made that the one at the Hardwick roundabout was completed.
Perhaps you care to explain why you think the A605 is too convenient and what you think should be done about it ? It seems a perfectly sensible route to use especially as Oundle has been bypassed. As a matter of fact I have used it myself on occasion.
I think the implication is that the existence of the A605 means that there's less need to upgrade the A47 west of the A1, as a significant portion of the traffic on those routes is aiming for or beyond Kettering and can go either way. (The A47/A43 and A605/A14 routes from Peterborough to Kettering are very comparable; there's not much to choose between them.)
Of course, some traffic will be aiming for Leicester (thus need the A47) or Northampton (thus need the A605), so it's useful for both routes to exist, but both are easily capable of handling the traffic going in those directions; so upgrading either route would take pressure off the other.
(There's also the A1(M)/A1/A14 route from Peterborough to Kettering, which is comparable time-wise but considerably longer in distance, and thus is likely inferior due to the extra fuel consumption.)
It's good to see that the North Burlingham dual carriageway scheme is going to be entirely grade separated but there's an existing at grade roundabout on the A47 at Brundall just over a mile west of this improvement scheme and A47 traffic often queues here and this can only get worse when the North Burlingham improvement is complete. There's enough space to the north of this roundabout to build a grade separated junction here but it's still good to see grade separated junctions on this section of the A47 especially at the B1140 junction which has been crying out for this for years. Also it looks like some sort of work is already going on south of the existing A47 at North Burlingham. Can anyone tell me if this is advanced works or the actual construction of this scheme.
A lot of the recent work has focused on the side road arrangement to connect Cantley Lane South. There were a couple of options for a GSJ at Station Lane, a couple of miles down the A11, which were understandably rejected as it would be a long diversion with very low usage (160 AADT).
I'm interested to see what method of construction they'll use for the new A11-A47 underpass as burrows under the A47 mainline and both sliproads at quite an oblique angle. Also the A11 off-slip is quite a bit lower than the mainline at the point where the new link crosses under it so it will have to be fairly deep. Exciting stuff! (well for Norfolk anyway)
I'm rather impressed with this. One change I would make is to Cantley Lane and turn the proposed footbridge into a vehicular bridge. Make the north end of Cantley Lane join the Round House Way roundabout and together with the new link road to the south of the park and ride this would provide access between Norwich and the B1172 without having to use the junction, further reducing traffic levels at Thickthorn.
How would you like your grade separations, Sir? Big and complex.
The Evening Telegraph reports Galliford Try has been selected as project delivery partner for Wansford-Sutton, which is good. The project is meant to commence in a year’s time.
Just one slight problem. A planning application hasn’t been submitted yet. Though it will be interesting to see if the process can be sped up even more (finish examination in maybe... 3 months, if they get it in)??
I’m getting concerned at the lack of updates regarding the various schemes. Last year, HE said it would submit the DCO applications this spring. Suffice to say not only has it not happened, but there’s been no updates, either from HE, or the PINS website.
In fact the last meeting PINS held with HE was a year ago.
We all know how stretched the government is at the moment, but has this project drifted into the long grass like so many others??
It's been well publicised that these have been moved back to early RIS2 rather than late RIS1. It's not anything specific to the A47 schemes - the ~30 schemes with 'RP2' next to them here have had the same treatment. This is essentially because the RIS1 budget as a whole set in 2014 turned out not to be enough to start all the 112 schemes by 2020, so many have moved into RP2/RIS2. And if you're planning to start in 2021/2022, say, it's inefficient to submit the planning application as early as 2019.
