Sheffield - approach from the north

[stu531]

I've recently started commuting to Sheffield.

Whilst the M1 from Lofthouse down is surprisingly picturesque and flows well, the last 5 miles from Meadowhall to the centre is awful - it takes an age.

Whilst the Parkway has existed a while, there's not a great route from the north to the city. If and when the tunnel gets built, this will be exacerbated.

Compared with the 621 and 602, it's pretty awful.

Is anyone aware of any past plans to create such a route? Like an A6109(M)?

[Conekicker]

You might want to try coming off at 36 and enjoying the A61 in the morning, as it crawls it's way into the city, yet another hopelessly inadequate route.

You especially might want to try it when works to the bridge shown below kick off in the next year or two, 'cos the congestion that's going to cause will, I suspect, be pretty impressive.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.47385 ... 6656?hl=en

[Bryn666]

Sheffield has an absolutely appalling road network for a city of its size. Did the Glorious PRSY not believe in allowing outsiders in?

[Conekicker]

Sheffield has an absolutely appalling road network for a city of its size. Did the Glorious PRSY not believe in allowing outsiders in?

Well SCC are firm believers that car drivers are the spawn of Satan and everyone should use the bus/tram. Or walk/cycle - in a very hilly city. There are no dual carriageways with appreciable lengths that are D3 either.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

Sheffield has an absolutely appalling road network for a city of its size. Did the Glorious PRSY not believe in allowing outsiders in?

The only decent approach to Sheffield city centre is via M1 Junction 33 and the Sheffield Parkway, but that is a very long way round if you are coming from Leeds.

Of course, the proximity of the Pennines and in particular the Peak District National Park hinders the construction of decent access roads anywhere to the west of the city. It is to be hoped that if the Woodhead route is upgraded to HQD2, maybe with tunnels, that a HQD2 is built to link the A628 / A616 route with the M18 bypassing Rotherham to the north so that traffic from Greater Manchester heading to Immingham, Lincolnshire and East Anglia would not have to use the M1 past Meadowhall.

[jackal]

From the Trans-Pennine Tunnel wider connectivity study:

A61  There may be a possible option for a new alignment to start from the Junction at
Cowper Avenue and join back into the A61
 Where the route is already two lanes in either direction, it may also be possible to
improve the existing junctions. The last 5.5km (towards the M1) is a more rural
area and has few restrictions against widening.

M1 J29-38  Some significant constraints exist such as the Tinsley Viaduct. The existing
envelope over the top level of the viaduct is now fully utilised by recent upgrade
works. In order to increase the carriageway cross-section over the viaduct major
structural modifications or a new structure would be required, both at significant
cost
 In the event that additional lanes or a hard shoulder are required in future, the M1
corridor is situated within a predominantly rural area and, as such, widening would
be feasible. In locations where there are constraints, the use of reinforced
earthworks and/or narrow lane widening may be considered.



viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34636

[James1978]

I actually remember going on a works away day in Sheffield in 2001 (as we had another office in Sheffield and it was the central of the three locations, Darlington, Sheffield and London), and we did actually go all the way down to J33 and go into the city that way, Not that I can remember what it was like 17 years ago, I only remembering thinking it odd that was the recommended route!

[Was92now625]

From the A625 part of Sheffield, I normally head for the A61 and J36. It is slow but other routes seem to have greater problems (perhaps trying J33 or J34 is faster but more than cancelled out by length). The 'least bad' route ??

[jgharston]

I regularly travel towards/away from Leeds/York and Sheffield and always use J36 and the A61 into/from Sheffield. I only come into Sheffield via the Parkway if I'm coming from somewhere to the East or South.

However, I do budget that my first half hour is just getting from my front door to the motorway. I can often get to Wakefield in 40 minutes, the first 30 being just getting onto the M1.

[stu531]

Thanks for the insightful comments.

Yes, I've come to terms with the fact that it takes a half hour to get from the M1 to the centre of the city. I've tried the park and ride at Meadowhall for the train, but the parking spaces get filled up too quickly first thing. The tram is rather too slow.

Traffic seems to use the various current routes - A6109, A6178, B6082 - each of which has its own bottlenecks.

The Parkway was underengineered and can't cope with rush hour traffic either way.

Ultimately it feels like an economic question - further trading across the north would be unlocked with a better route and folks' lives would be easier!

[Pontelad]

Ultimately it feels like an economic question - further trading across the north would be unlocked with a better route and folks' lives would be easier!

Well Sheffield (and South Yorkshire) has a shiny new Mayor, so hopefully he can provide a voice and get improvements promoted.

If we could just get the rest of Yorkshire to agree a devolution deal (I favour a Welsh style assembly and "First Minister", rather than a Mayor) then, along with Greater Manchester we might start to see things moving.

[Andyman]

Thanks for the insightful comments.

Yes, I've come to terms with the fact that it takes a half hour to get from the M1 to the centre of the city. I've tried the park and ride at Meadowhall for the train, but the parking spaces get filled up too quickly first thing. The tram is rather too slow.

Traffic seems to use the various current routes - A6109, A6178, B6082 - each of which has its own bottlenecks.

The Parkway was underengineered and can't cope with rush hour traffic either way.

Ultimately it feels like an economic question - further trading across the north would be unlocked with a better route and folks' lives would be easier!

You can try virtually any route you like to get into the city from the north and at some point you will hit traffic during rush hour, so I'd say the most direct route is the one to go for, which is probably J34/A6109. There are a number of possibilities and rat runs through the likes of Ecclesfield, Firth Park and Parson Cross you can try but in my experience they don't save any time over sticking to the main routes.

Access to the M1 from the south-west of the city is very poor, although there is an unofficial western ring road made up of country lanes that locals use at busy times to travel towards J36, via Bents Green, Mayfield, Lodge Moor, Stannington, Worrall & Oughtibridge which brings you onto the A61 at Grenoside. These roads were never designed to cope with the levels of traffic they carry now but the geography made any chance of a proper ring road around the west of Sheffield very difficult.

[Bryn666]

Geography makes roads difficult but not impossible.

Remember the Europeans have got motorways going across the Alps!

[fras]

Geography makes roads difficult but not impossible.

Remember the Europeans have got motorways going across the Alps!

Yes, there is a dreadful paucity of ambition in this country. Traffic is not going to go away, and when a large percentage of vehicles are electric, the big No-No of pollution will be much diminished removing this excuse for inaction. Will there be a big wake-up in 20 years time ? I have to say I suspect not.

[lefthandedspanner]

Almost by coincidence, I've started working in Sheffield during the last couple of weeks - though I work on the east side near Darnall rather than in the centre, so I take the dualled A631 through Tinsley and pick up the ring road, so my workplace is 10 minutes from M1 junction 34.

This evening I thought I'd take the long way round to the M1, via Meadowhall to avoid the customary queue on the A631 at Tinsley roundabout, seeing as the traffic didn't look too bad on Google maps. What a fool I was. It took nearly three times longer, not helped by the fact there was a car transporter broken down in lane 1.

A major aggravating factor is the phasing of the lights on various roundabouts and junctions. They're like a green wave in reverse - one goes green, then you have to stop until the next one goes green, then the next one... the net result is that anywhere near peak times, you end up with miles of stationary or near-stationary traffic which has nowhere to go during the few seconds it gets a green light (because the next section of road is full), or only enough room for one car/half a bus to pass through per green cycle.

[stu531]

Considering when the M1, Parkway etc were built - progress has been slow. In the same time, the Smeaton Viaduct (A61), A453 dualling and Manc Inner Ring Road completion have been done. I think there’s an amount of lobbying to be done to achieve the same level of connectivity.

[Was92now625]

I normally 'budget' for the time from SW Sheffield to J36 being 40 minutes. Yesterday was 53 ....

[Was92now625]

A major aggravating factor is the phasing of the lights on various roundabouts and junctions. They're like a green wave in reverse - one goes green, then you have to stop until the next one goes green, then the next one... the net result is that anywhere near peak times, you end up with miles of stationary or near-stationary traffic which has nowhere to go during the few seconds it gets a green light (because the next section of road is full), or only enough room for one car/half a bus to pass through per green cycle.

Sheffield also seems to manage to have traffic lights preventing people getting OFF roundabouts so they queue back onto the roundabout slowing down everyone else ....

[stu531]

More musings on commuting from Sheffield: I've used the Parkway a few times now, sometimes heading out along it, then taking the Ring Road, then taking Shepcote Lane to J34.

Anyway, where the Parkway meets the Inner Ring Road is obviously a relatively new junction, but it's the peak point of the backlog.

If the junction of the A57 & A61 (Parkway and Derek Dooley Way, in other words, next to the Capita Building) had been built as Grade Separated, would traffic have dispersed onto the Ring Road causing fewer queues in a morning?

I'm not sure how feasible it would be squeeze slip roads in, and you'd need two bridges. You could elevate eastbound traffic on the A57 and create an underpass for A61 clockwise traffic.

[jackal]

I've been thinking the same thing about that junction. What's truly criminal is that there's no freeflow whatsoever - not even the left turns to/from the Parkway proper, which would be trivial to provide.

I fancy you could squeeze a bridge in as well - not full freeflow but enough to free up one of the right turns. You would probably have to rationalize some of the access roads that really have no business converging at this point.