Traffic congestion Options

[Bloggo]

Hello gang.
I know it's race day but I spent 25 minutes getting from the Robin Hood Roundabout to the Police Station Roundabout today.
God only knows what Newbury roads will be like with another 2k5 homes in the Greenham area.
Surely this needs to be looked at again.

[Iommi]

Hello gang. I know it's race day but I spent 25 minutes getting from the Robin Hood Roundabout to the Police Station Roundabout today. God only knows what Newbury roads will be like with another 2k5 homes in the Greenham area. Surely this needs to be looked at again.

They would if they could give a Tom Tit.

[Bloggo]

They would if they could give a Tom Tit.

Iommi, you have a wonderful way with words.

[Guest_Bill1_*]

Who are "they"?

[JeffG]

The Kings Road roundabout is the worst bottleneck in Newbury. Whoever "they" are, "they" need to take a serious look at that junction and prioritise some serious work on it. Until there is a north-south underpass there, Newbury will continue to become gridlocked at the slightest excuse.

At the same time, they should knock down the building that houses the dry cleaners/KFC to improve the wharf junction.

If half the money that was spent on tarting up the town centre had been spent in these areas, everyone's quality of life would have been improved.

[blackdog]

The Kings Road roundabout is the worst bottleneck in Newbury. Whoever "they" are, "they" need to take a serious look at that junction and prioritise some serious work on it. Until there is a north-south underpass there, Newbury will continue to become gridlocked at the slightest excuse.

WBC recently spent £500k on the Robin Hood gyratory - the cheapest of three options that were considered. The most expensive (£50M) involved a flyover. I don't think underpasses are that practical along there - too prone to filling up with water.

Add flyovers to the three roundabouts and we'd be pretty close to the central option for the bypass. But WBC will never have the cash for a scheme like that.

[JeffG]

I don't think underpasses are that practical along there - too prone to filling up with water.

How do underpasses elsewhere cope then? There is already a pedestrian underpass under that roundabout, and as far as I know, it's not prone to flooding.

(I'm aware the Robin Hood pedestrian subway has problems - why that should be different, I don't know.)

[Biker1]

Hello gang.
I know it's race day but I spent 25 minutes getting from the Robin Hood Roundabout to the Police Station Roundabout today.
God only knows what Newbury roads will be like with another 2k5 homes in the Greenham area.
Surely this needs to be looked at again.

Yeah - how about a by-pass.......................oh!

[Darren]

How do underpasses elsewhere cope then? There is already a pedestrian underpass under that roundabout, and as far as I know, it's not prone to flooding.

(I'm aware the Robin Hood pedestrian subway has problems - why that should be different, I don't know.)

The continual problems with flooding was the reason the surface crossings were introduced.

[Iommi]

Who are "they"?

The ones who don't give a Tom Tit.

But for all that, I'd still rather live here than any where else...at the mo.

[Jeven]

Hello gang.
I know it's race day but I spent 25 minutes getting from the Robin Hood Roundabout to the Police Station Roundabout today.
God only knows what Newbury roads will be like with another 2k5 homes in the Greenham area.
Surely this needs to be looked at again.

In fairness even with people leaving (and returning) for work / school they won't all be doing so within such a short space of time, along such a limited range of roads as occurs during a race day. Even so it does need to be improved. Have the developers contributed any money towards improving the infrastructure?

[GrumblingAgain]

What I can't understand is why the Robin Hood roundabout is not turned back into a "normal" roundabout. That has to be the cheapest option as it probably involves just removing the turf and maybe resurfacing that small segment.

With a restored roundabout it would be far easier and quicker for all the Parkway southbound traffic to head north, round the Robin Hood and use the two lane ex A34 road to go South, instead of causing the huge jams over the little bridge and around the wharf. That alone might be enough to remove the need to demolish the KFC building and improve access to the Police station roundabout.

Surely now that the A34 avoids the town, the Robin Hood and Police station roundabouts could have their traffic lights removed, or just used at peak times.

I am sure we were promised major road improvements from the Lib Dems at the time of the bypass opening? They had some good 6-7 years to do something before they lost power?

[JeffG]

That alone might be enough to remove the need to demolish the KFC building

I think that would be missing a huge opportunity to improve Newbury's health at the same time as traffic flows!

[Exhausted]

There's a plan to build a bridge across from the racecourse side to Hambridge Road which should help. Why that was knocked back originally I'm not sure.
The other urgent consideration would be the road that starts at SCAT's but doesn't yet go anywhere but which was planned to run down from there and then continue Eastbound through the Sterling Estate to join a roundabout at the Kings Rd/Boundary Rd junction. This would alleviate the problem of cars coming out of Sainsbury's/Scat's/Kings Road etc having to go round the A339 Sainsbury's roundabout to go back Eastwards towards Thatcham.
What we don't have in Newbury is a ring road around the town. A road on the Western side joining the A339 would do the trick. (You can submit your route plans here for consideration.)

[blackdog]

There's a plan to build a bridge across from the racecourse side to Hambridge Road which should help. Why that was knocked back originally I'm not sure.

Won't help much - for two reasons. 1. The A4/Hambridge Rd junction is overloaded already, additional traffic will just make added conjestion. 2. The racecourse developers seem determined to prevent/dissuade traffic from using their site as a through route (not caring a tom tit about the residents of places like Boundary Rd). If the bridge is merely an access to the racecourse estate it will not relieve the pressure of traffic anywhere - just add to it.

The other urgent consideration would be the road that starts at SCAT's but doesn't yet go anywhere but which was planned to run down from there and then continue Eastbound through the Sterling Estate to join a roundabout at the Kings Rd/Boundary Rd junction. This would alleviate the problem of cars coming out of Sainsbury's/Scat's/Kings Road etc having to go round the A339 Sainsbury's roundabout to go back Eastwards towards Thatcham.

It was originally planned to extend as far as the racecourse station - which would have really relieved the residential section of Hambridge Rd as well as Kings Rd and Boundary Rd. Now it has been watered down to a minimum cost one-way road. Half-hearted measures like this are the problem with Newbury road planning - look at the Park Way bridge for another example.

What we don't have in Newbury is a ring road around the town. A road on the Western side joining the A339 would do the trick. (You can submit your route plans here for consideration.)

Dream on.

[Exhausted]

Won't help much - for two reasons. 1. The A4/Hambridge Rd junction is overloaded already, additional traffic will just make added conjestion. 2. The racecourse developers seem determined to prevent/dissuade traffic from using their site as a through route (not caring a tom tit about the residents of places like Boundary Rd). If the bridge is merely an access to the racecourse estate it will not relieve the pressure of traffic anywhere - just add to it.

It is a bit of a problem at work turn out time but generally the traffic flows. I haven't seen any plans but would believe that the racecourse traffic on race days would be a way out for Eastbound vehicles thus relieving the A339 through the town.

The second point is that the Council within their planning remit could easily ensure that the road structure will suit the purpose both for the new buildings and the existing Greenham residents.

[blackdog]

It is a bit of a problem at work turn out time but generally the traffic flows. I haven't seen any plans but would believe that the racecourse traffic on race days would be a way out for Eastbound vehicles thus relieving the A339 through the town.

I suspect that the developers will prefer to dissuade race traffic from using the residential roads they are planning - wouldn't want to reduce the value of the properties they are building.

The second point is that the Council within their planning remit could easily ensure that the road structure will suit the purpose both for the new buildings and the existing Greenham residents.

The best the planners can do is to refuse permission for the development until they are happy with the traffic issues (I believe this is why the plans have been resubmitted - with the useful side effect of rendering void all objections to the previous application). However, the planners are under pressure from within to ensure that the development goes ahead since the Local Development Framework that is about to be issued needs this development in order to meet WBC's targets.