Sustainable transport improvements in Gillingham are moving on to the Newbury junction this summer.
From Monday 3 August, work will start on improving pedestrian and cycle safety at the Newbury (High Street) junction with Shaftesbury Road.
Following consultation feedback from local residents, the junction will remain as a mini-roundabout. A new toucan crossing will be installed on Le Neubourg Way and pavements in the area will be widened to provide a shared-use footway/cycleway around the busy junction.
It will take around six weeks to complete the work, with four-way temporary traffic signals in use to provide a safe working area as well as ensure suitable crossing facilities are provided for pedestrians during the work.
The team on site will monitor the traffic flow and remove the temporary lights when it is safe to do so, otherwise they will be in place 24-hours-a-day.
Cllr Ray Bryan, Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment, said: “Improving the cycle links around Gillingham will give residents a choice in how they undertake shorter journeys. Even switching to one sustainable transport journey a week can help alleviate congestion, with cycling also benefiting health, wellbeing and the environment. It will also support our aim for the Dorset Council area to be carbon neutral by 2050.
“With new housing developments planned in the town, it’s important to get the infrastructure ready for growth – both for vehicles and for sustainable travel.
“We will be doing our best to keep traffic flowing during the work, but we are working in a very busy area. If you can, please allow some extra time for your journey.”
Current works on Le Neubourg Way and the Waitrose Junction are nearing completion. The construction work will be complete by the end of July but the new signals will not be switched on until Le Neubourg Way is surfaced at the end of August.
Later this year, work will start on Higher Station Road – to introduce a one-way flow southbound to improve the pedestrian environment – and the layout at the Shaftesbury Road/New Road junction will be changed to improve traffic flow.
The funding is being used to enhance key junctions through Gillingham, improve cycle links to the train station and will fund the design of the Enmore Green Link Road.
Whilst any work on improvement might be helpful and cycle route improvement is welcome I fail to see how the ‘tinkering’ with junctions will improve what is already an increasing congestion problem. Putting a Toucan crossing on the main exit to the roundabout is bound to cause a back queue which will overflow into the next junction. It’s a classic problem of putting too many junctions close together. SCOOT control may help but that is an expensive high maintenance cost solution suitable to highly urban environments not rural market towns. I would love to see your traffic modelling process and results. The B3081 has significantly increasing traffic load (I know as I live on it) with more heavy vehicles and speeding generally. It clearly has become a rat run for A350/A30/A303 movement. Adding the Enmore Green Link Road will only encourage more of this. Overall I fail to see the benefit or the quality in your solution. If Gillingham wants or needs development the council should be prepared to put in the infrastructure to suit that so it’s part of the development cost. It looks like wasting over £3million to facilitate the need for housing forced on it by the government/council yet really not enough. So really the council cannot afford the development it seeks
Hi – good progress – but for cyclists around Gillingham, Stur Newton, Stallbridge – down to Bullbarrow, some of the road surfaces are treacherous – the potholes and some resurfacing could throw you off your bike if you don’t avoid them (by moving erratically) it’s obvious that road repairs are done only with motorists in mind – contrast this with France for ibstabce. I’m happy to elaborate and consult as a 52 year old serious cyclist who has cycled to work in places such as Portsmouth and Southend on Sea – and seen good and bad road layouts
I am not sure of the plans for Lodden B3081 but I live on the corner of King John Road and the B3081 has become a nightmare with continuous traffic similar to living next door to a motorway making my house worthless .
It is now far quicker to drive through the town centre and it now will always be the best option for most motorist. I cycle, the thing that I don’t want is shared use with pedestrians, pushchairs, dogs on leads ETC. I just want the roads wide enough to take cars and bikes. La Neubourg way has always been ok and the best and easiest road in Gillingham to cycle along. This whole thing is just a way to grab money from a government scheme, then try to fix a problem that wasn’t there, in the process cause traffic problems forever. If you had to do something just divert those cyclist that don’t like traffic up through the town (the rout all the school children take) . Sort out the pavement on the B3081 that has a pole stopping pushchairs or even two people passing without walking on the road. The traffic is accelerating fast at this point probably because of the frustration of being held up by pointless traffic lights all the way through Gillingham.
I certainly agree with regards to the short length of lacking pavement heading towards the Orchards Park roundabout from Kingfisher Avenue roundabout on the B3081, which I feel would have been the first consideration on necessary safety improvements for the town when the money was available. Shopping pedestrians heading towards the new Aldi will most likely take the shortest route to the store. So they have the choice of stepping onto the road to progress or cross the twice.
Whoever designed the one way system should have beenin the Asda car park at 3.30 on fri 23rd of Oct They would have been lynched by furious motorists who waited 20 minutes to get out of the car park