News: U-turns in road plan
Motorists will need to be prepared to do a u-turn as plans for a £5m transport scheme to reduce congestion in Rotherham have been amended after surveys found that there has been a significant increase in traffic since 2010.
£3.4m was secured last year from the government's £190m Local Pinch Point Fund to convert Pool Green roundabout (Liquid roundabout) on the edge of the town centre into signalised crossroads. The junction of A630 Centenary Way and Main Street currently experiences significant congestion and the council has previously investigated options to improve the capacity of the junction in order to improve journey time reliability and reduce delay.
With £500k of funding from Local Transport Plan (LTP) and £1m of capital funding from the council, the scheme would also remove the barriers currently restricting the development at important sites such as the New York Stadium, the Guest & Chrimes site, Forge Island, Liquid nightclub and the wider town centre.
The improvements are also expected to have a significant impact on unlocking Rotherham's "urban extension" at Bassingthorpe Farm where the council hopes that 2,400 new residential homes will be located.
Development plots on the west side of the junction would also be created, which would be in the Council's ownership, and offer a future capital receipt, which initial views suggest could be worth up to £600k.
Subsequent traffic surveys have revealed a significant increase in flow at the junction since the previous surveys in 2010, which were used to develop the original design for the Pinch Point Scheme.
Now the plans have been amended with the widening of the busy Centenary Way to three lanes as it approaches the new junction.
However, to keep the traffic flowing, vehicles wishing to turn right from Centenary Way towards either Masbrough or the town centre will now need to go straight ahead at the crossroads, use the signal controlled U-Turn facilities within the wide central reservation to come back on themselves, and then turn left at the crossroads.
The right turn from Masbrough Street onto Centenary Way has been retained.
In a recent council report, Ian Ashmore, transportation and traffic manager at Rotherham Council, said: "The revised scheme has significant benefits in terms for both the free and safe flow of traffic on the highway network, and meets the DfT's main objectives in awarding grants under the Pinch Point Fund effectively freeing up the most constrained junction along Centenary Way between St. Anns and Ickles Roundabouts.
"From the traffic modelling exercise that has now been undertaken, it is considered that the scheme design now promoted can acceptably accommodate the predicted traffic growth up to the scheme design year 2030, whilst also accommodating pedestrians crossing from Masbrough into the Town Centre at-grade under signal control."
Work was due to start in June 2014 and must be completed in March 2015. Trade reports suggest that Eurovia Contracting UK (Ringway) has been appointed to carry out the work.
Images: WSP / RMBC
£3.4m was secured last year from the government's £190m Local Pinch Point Fund to convert Pool Green roundabout (Liquid roundabout) on the edge of the town centre into signalised crossroads. The junction of A630 Centenary Way and Main Street currently experiences significant congestion and the council has previously investigated options to improve the capacity of the junction in order to improve journey time reliability and reduce delay.
With £500k of funding from Local Transport Plan (LTP) and £1m of capital funding from the council, the scheme would also remove the barriers currently restricting the development at important sites such as the New York Stadium, the Guest & Chrimes site, Forge Island, Liquid nightclub and the wider town centre.
The improvements are also expected to have a significant impact on unlocking Rotherham's "urban extension" at Bassingthorpe Farm where the council hopes that 2,400 new residential homes will be located.
Development plots on the west side of the junction would also be created, which would be in the Council's ownership, and offer a future capital receipt, which initial views suggest could be worth up to £600k.
Subsequent traffic surveys have revealed a significant increase in flow at the junction since the previous surveys in 2010, which were used to develop the original design for the Pinch Point Scheme.
Now the plans have been amended with the widening of the busy Centenary Way to three lanes as it approaches the new junction.
However, to keep the traffic flowing, vehicles wishing to turn right from Centenary Way towards either Masbrough or the town centre will now need to go straight ahead at the crossroads, use the signal controlled U-Turn facilities within the wide central reservation to come back on themselves, and then turn left at the crossroads.
The right turn from Masbrough Street onto Centenary Way has been retained.
In a recent council report, Ian Ashmore, transportation and traffic manager at Rotherham Council, said: "The revised scheme has significant benefits in terms for both the free and safe flow of traffic on the highway network, and meets the DfT's main objectives in awarding grants under the Pinch Point Fund effectively freeing up the most constrained junction along Centenary Way between St. Anns and Ickles Roundabouts.
"From the traffic modelling exercise that has now been undertaken, it is considered that the scheme design now promoted can acceptably accommodate the predicted traffic growth up to the scheme design year 2030, whilst also accommodating pedestrians crossing from Masbrough into the Town Centre at-grade under signal control."
Work was due to start in June 2014 and must be completed in March 2015. Trade reports suggest that Eurovia Contracting UK (Ringway) has been appointed to carry out the work.
Images: WSP / RMBC
5 comments:
Does this plan effect the Walker family cemetery and Mausoleum site???
As usual the council is spending millions on a scheme when all that was needed was a set of traffic lights.this ridiculous scheme will only make congestion worse,waste fuel and increase pollution.a 5year old could have done better
This idea of u turns is not only stupid but downright dangerous.it can only cause more jams than ever before.I am fully expecting accident after accident..this whole scheme smacks of not too wholesome dealings
I hope the council is proud as this scheme most have cost local bussiss thousands in lost sales not to mention the time lost sat in traffic for people commuting
I fail to see where this is going to be any better
Someone will be getting rich again off this
It's a joke
This will definitely not increase journey time. It states the u turns will have traffic signals on them which will obviously stop the flow of traffic. So not only will you have to stop at these signals but you will have to stop again 200m further down at the traffic signals at the roundabout. Are they also going to have traffic lights at the road which crosses over Centenary Way from Kimberworth Way to Main Street?if so this will mean we will have 3 sets of lights within a space of 200m. To add to the problem during peak hour instead of drivers not restricting the flow of traffic by leaving the road clear they drive across the junction even though they can't go any further thereby stopping traffic from flowing in the other direction.
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