Westgate Roundabout (Chichester)

Westgate Roundabout is a roundabout on the Chichester's inner city Ring Road (A286) which is located just outside of the old city walls. It has five arms, of which two are no-through roads. Most of the arms are some part of the local cycle network, and has on-carriageway cycle markings in some places, and a shared cycle/footway on the southern side along with toucan crossings. It received minor changes in 2020 as a response to covid which were reverted as well as proposed to become a Dutch Style roundabout in December 2023.

History

1922

Earliest maps shows a T-junction of West Street (inside walls), Westgate (outside wall) & Orchard Street to the North. In 1922 the East-West route was the A27 and Orchard Street was numberless, the A286 instead went N-S directly into the city centre through Northgate.

1940s

By 1946 it appears that the Chichester Bypass was completed to the south, this resulted in the A259 taking up the old route of the A27 Through the City Centre.

Late 1960s

Plans of making the city centre traffic free started to happen. The first step of this was diverting the A286 around the Western Side via Orchard Street. A road was built out from the Southern side of West Street/Westgate. This was known as "West Fields Road", later renamed to Avenue de Chartres. This was built as a D2, although narrowed to a S2/D1 on the approach to West Street/Westgate where it met at a staggered T-junction.

1970s

In 1970s the Pedestrian precinct was created. This turned all four roads in the city centre into pedestrian streets, this would result in the inner ring road being created. This inner ring road would become the A286 all the way around. This also seemed to be the time when the roundabout was first created as traffic levels would appear to of heavily changed at this time. The roundabout had five arms which are the same as today apart from Westgate still carrying the A259.

1983

In 1983 Cathedral Way / Via Ravenna was built off of the Avenue de Chartres, this carried the A259, replacing Westgate. At the same time the level crossing on Westgate was closed to traffic (except cycles and pedestrians), a footbridge would then completely replace the level crossing in the 2010s.

2000s

Between 2002 and 2005 the arms of the A286 has Pelican Crossings installed

2010s

Between 2011 and 2014 the Pelican Crossings were upgraded to Puffin Crossings In 2015 the Puffin Crossing on the southern side was upgraded to a Toucan Crossing with turning footway into a shared space, as well as widening the uncontrolled crossing on West Street and making North Walls into part of the cycle network.

2020

In 2020 as a response to covid-19, a temporary cycleway was setup along some of the ring road reducing the D2 sections to D1 and lowing the speed limit to 20 MPH. This only resulted in the A286 to the south getting a cycle lane at this roundabout.

2023

It is proposed to turn Westgate Roundabout into a Dutch Style roundabout. This will see the roundabout reduced in size with a dedicated one-way cycle track around the outside, crossing the arms at parallel crossings. There would also be speed limit changes to 20 MPH as well as some extension of cycle lanes. The Puffin/Toucan crossings would also be removed. These works should happen in December 2023

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A286	Midhurst, Northgate, University, Ring Road	Orchard Street
A286	Portsmouth (A27), Witterings, Southgate, Terminus Id Est, Sports Centre, Ring Road	Avenue de Chartres
	Pedestrian precinct, County Hall, The Novium	West Street. No through road (for motor vehicles)
		Westgate
		Wall Cottage Drive / North Walls. No through road (for motor vehicles)
A27	Portsmouth
A27	Brighton
A259	Portsmouth