Midlands Connect road strategy

[Steven]

That will be because the M54 - M6 - M6 Toll link is already in the firm programme. Midland Connect don't need to push it.

[Chris Bertram]

Three-laning the M54 would be nice. At peak times it's elephant race central, and there's no third lane to get round the jostling juggernauts. So please settle down for a nice ride at a steady 56mph ...

[M4 Cardiff]

I remember yonks ago, I think on a university trip, we were stuck behind an elephant race for pretty much the entire length of the motorway.

[jackal]

At the bottom of this page you can see summaries of these studies:

[snip]

Stoke Road Hub

It doesn't really say what they're doing to upgrade the A50

There are two options:

1. A50 Expressway grade separated junctions, A500 capacity improvements to M6 J16 and dualling the A500 west of M6.
2. A50 Expressway grade separated junctions, A500 grade separated junctions via M6 J15, Smart Motorway M6 J15 to J16 and dualling the A500 West of M6.

Essentially these are two different ways of achieving the same thing, i.e. an upgraded route from the A50 to M6 north. One route goes 'directly' north up the A500 to J16, the other goes via J15.

- and it appears that the two at-grade roundabouts, at Blythe Bridge and Sudbury, are remaining.

I think the proposal may be to grade separate them, because both options above say 'A50 Expressway grade separated junctions', and Blythe and Sudbury are the only flat junctions remaining after the committed Uttoxeter scheme. So the reference to 'do minimum' with the two flat roundabouts is referring to the baseline prior to the 'Stoke Road Hub' scheme. It is a little ambiguous though.

[vlad]

It doesn't really say what they're doing to upgrade the A50

There are two options:

1. A50 Expressway grade separated junctions, A500 capacity improvements to M6 J16 and dualling the A500 west of M6.
2. A50 Expressway grade separated junctions, A500 grade separated junctions via M6 J15, Smart Motorway M6 J15 to J16 and dualling the A500 West of M6.

Essentially these are two different ways of achieving the same thing, i.e. an upgraded route from the A50 to M6 north. One route goes 'directly' north up the A500 to J16, the other goes via J15.

I did read that on the pdf - the thing is, apart from "A50 Expressway grade separated junctions" everything refers to the A500. Whereas I appreciate that you can't really do much with the urban bit of the A50 I was wondering if they were going to do anything else.

Maybe fully grade separating the road between the A500 and M1 J24A is what they're going to do and is all that's needed. However, if they can replace the concrete road surface and find some way to increase the 40 limit that's be appreciated.

[jackal]

The tricky bit for me is the A50/A500 junction. This will be a pretty glaring bottleneck if the A50 grade separation is completed and either J15 or J16 freeflowed.

[Bryn666]

The really stupid thing with the A50/A500 junction is there is a trumpet connection to a residential road right next to it. Yet this huge expressway grade road slams into a signal controlled roundabout.

Think I need to get the crayons out.

[Chris5156]

The really stupid thing with the A50/A500 junction is there is a trumpet connection to a residential road right next to it. Yet this huge expressway grade road slams into a signal controlled roundabout.

Think I need to get the crayons out.

The trumpet has been roundabouted for some tin shed development, but the point still stands. It looks rather like it depended on space - the A50 junction is hemmed in by waterways on both sides and the roundabout layout keeps the junction within the space available, whereas a free-flow layout would have needed to cross the waterways several times.

Any free-flow would probably need to be braided with the sliproads to the next junction along both the A50 and A500, because in all three directions the next junction comes very quickly. A quick scan suggests to me that a free-flow right turn from A50 to A500 northbound is easier to fit in and to braid, and free-flowing the corresponding left turn is uncomplicated.

[Bryn666]

I've gone for a Dublin solution... https://drive.google.com/open?id=15QZ0v ... sp=sharing

[jackal]

Nice. I was thinking about ways of using the loop, but the best I came up with would have traffic going round, across the A5066 bridge, and then onto A500nb via another loop!

I would probably go with Chris's suggestion of a semi-direct ramp for that movement (wb->nb). As he says, some braiding would be required for the adjacent junction. With that movement off the roundabout it can simplified to a single set of lights in the NE quadrant, with a large majority of green time given to the remaining strategic movement (nb->eb), so I think it would perform okay.

[Bryn666]

Your version is certainly easier to bolt on to the existing. I've attached mine for comparison so people don't need to window-jump.

Mine is probably a better "what should have been done from the start" approach. That said, the structural content is not so much the number but the complexity, so it may be achievable. However, as a complex layout it will fail at the first HE hurdle because their beloved design manual only likes roundabouts.

[danfw194]

I'd be interested to see any traffic data through this junction. Is there any possibility that the most traversed route is the A500 (the southern leg) to A50 and vice versa, as opposed to A500 through traffic? Is there any case to make the A500 northbound a TOTSO, and have A50 freeflowing into the A500 onto M6 J15?

One thing that does need address is M6 J15 itself, recognised on CBRD as a bad junction. A really tight and dangerous trumpet barely any distance from a flat roundabout - not good enough for the volume and type of traffic it handles.

[Steven]

I'd be interested to see any traffic data through this junction. Is there any possibility that the most traversed route is the A500 (the southern leg) to A50 and vice versa, as opposed to A500 through traffic? Is there any case to make the A500 northbound a TOTSO, and have A50 freeflowing into the A500 onto M6 J15?

Traffic counts are available on SABRE Maps, which may help.

[danfw194]

Thanks Steven, certainly does. If I've interpreted the data correctly then it looks quite close between the two, but a bit more travelling as A500 through traffic.

From personal experience of this junction, I've never took issue with it. But I've never driven it at rush hour so that opinion is pretty meaningless.

[Bryn666]

It's dire at rush hour. The tiny Blythe Bridge roundabout holds back a lot of traffic presently though.

[vlad]

The really stupid thing with the A50/A500 junction is there is a trumpet connection to a residential road right next to it. Yet this huge expressway grade road slams into a signal controlled roundabout.

That's the problem. The trumpet onto the A5006 is original to the A500. When the A50 was built the new junction was designed to affect the existing as little as possible. There isn't really anywhere else the A50 could have plugged into the A500.

I wonder if it would be possible to extend the A5006 over the canal and railway to meet the B5490 and close off the junction with the A500, or would it be cheaper to demolish the whole of Sideway Interchange and rebuild free-flow?

[Glenn A]

Would a replacement for the congested and outdated A45 Coventry by pass ever be considered? Also upgrading the 60 mph D2 A45 from the M45 to Coventry to D3M, to tie in with a new Coventry by pass, would remove pressure on the M6 and provide a fast link to the city and to Birmingham if Coventry is by passed totally from the west.

[jackal]

A press release from June provides a useful summary of ten proposals for the 'motorway hub':

- Estimated time savings signage on the M6 to encourage better use of the M6 Toll during incidents and peak times.
- Identifying opportunities for a Strategic Park and Ride scheme as an alternative to short motorway journeys
- Examining the economic case for a Western Strategic Route linking M5/M6
- Widening the M42 from Junction 3A to Junction 7
- Creating an A46 Expressway
- Further enhancements on M42 Junction 6
- Targeted improvements on M6 Junction 2, 3 and 4
- Ramp metering (installing traffic lights) on M5 at Junction 1 and Junction 2
- Developing a smart motorway on M6, M1 to Junction 2.
- Test the potential for an HGV Platooning trial in the Midlands

The 'further enhancements on M42 Junction 6' are interesting given HE just rejected a full freeflow upgrade in favour of some £300m roundabouts...

https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/latest-n ... ay-network
https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/media/11 ... 062018.pdf

[Johnathan404]

- Estimated time savings signage on the M6 to encourage better use of the M6 Toll during incidents and peak times.

"15 minutes quicker or your money back"?

[danfw194]

Hmmm, none of that seems particularly ambitious, apart from the A46 Expressway. Stereotypical sticking-plaster solutions in an age of austerity.

I don't think they should include the A5 on their motorway hub map if none of the 10 proposals address it.