Newbury Weekly News - May 11th 2017

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Newbury Weekly News

NEWBURY VISION2026CONFERENCE

Plans fortheBearLanedouble roundabout

Thedesign fora ‘hamburger’ junction atBearLane

Theproposed BearLane flyover

Council explored new ways to beat congestion

Flyover among options considered tokeeptraffic flowing through town

the double roundabout, which the council alsoconsidered, Mr Winstanley joked that it “looked like something put together by a tortured mind”. “It has its merits,” he said.“It basically creates two smaller roundabouts and removes the conflicts between the right turns. “Again, building this would be very, very difficult and it didn’t quite give the benefitswe managed to generate from the proposed scheme [Cheap Street junction]. Another option considered by the council was a flyover or a tunnel from Bear Lane. “This is something we ask for more often than you’d believe,” said Mr Winstanley. “We did briefly have a look at this and it would generate some improvements, but unless we could fly in on helicopters I don’t think we would be able to construct it. “Plus, there wasn ’t quite the space on the A339 to get on and off of it.”

For the council’s preferred scheme, it is proposing to create the new junction on to Cheap Street to allow traffic travelling from the north and east to access the town centre. This would involve making Bear Lane one-way eastbound between Wharf Road and the A339, meaning motorists wouldn’t be able to get to The Wharf via the Sainsbury’ s roundabout. The council also wants to remove the central reservation on the A339 between the Sains- bury’s junction and the new junction to provide a right-turn lane into Cheap Street. However, this would mean parking on Cheap Street south would be “restricted” to accom- modate the additional traffic flow. It is also proposed to intro- duce a new pedestriancrossing on Cheap Street and a mini roundabout at the Market Street/Cheap Street junction, which will replace the current give way lines.

A FLYOVER, a ‘hamburger junction’ and a double round- about were all considered by West Berkshire Council as ways of easing congestion around the Sainsbury’s roundabout in Newbury. The council’ s projects manager, Jon Winstanley, revealed discussions around all three took place– but none were considered to be viable. As reported on the front page of the Newbury Weekly News last week, the council is now consulting on its preferred option – a new junction divert- ing traffic from the A339 into Cheap Street. Mr Winstanley said: “ I think most people who use the [Sains- bury’s] junction are aware that the main problem on it is the right hand turns in all direc- tions basically. “We looked at numerous options for this junction. “One of the obvious options was taking the junction out completely and putting in signal-controlled crossroads.

“That didn’t work. There’s just not enough capacity on the approaches. “More radical solutions included a hamburger junc- tion. “Any of you who have been to Winnersh in Reading, to the cinema, have probably been through a fairly well-estab- lished one there. “The premise is the main route through the A339 would travel through the centre of the junction with other trafic going around it. “We tried that, but it didn ’t quite give us the right capacity. “It had some improvements, but the other problem with this as well is that it would be impos- sible to build in Newbury and not close Newbury down for up to a year, which is obviously unacceptable.” Referring to the diagram of Report by DANCOOPER email dan.cooper@newbur ynews.co.uk twitter @danc_nwn

Theproposed new junction onCheap Street

Robin Hood roundabout set for a revamp PLANS for a major revamp of Newbury’s Robin Hood roundabout have been unveiled. the traffic coming from Shaw Road can carry on straight through, which significantly reduces the queuing on Shaw Road.”

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The proposals would involve widening the road outside the fire station to create a second lane for Thatcham instead of one. The council is also proposing to widen the roundabout to five lanes at the end of Shaw Road and install a traffic island to separate the traffic turning left on to the A4 and straight over to the A339 towards Sains- bury’s. Explaining the proposed changes at the Newbury Vision meeting, the coun- cil’s projects manager, Jon Winstanley, said: “At the moment, traffic coming out of Shaw Road is immediately hit by a red light. “We can unlock that so

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The two-lane approach to the roundabout from Fara- day Road would also be widened to three lanes to improve capacity. On the Aldi side, the plan is to elongate the two-lane approach to minimise congestion. A YouTube video show- ing how the proposed scheme would work, is available to view at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AaEZpReHLAk &feature=youtu.be No definite date has been set for the proposed works as they are dependent on funding from the north Newbury development – which will see up to 400 new homes built in Donnington.

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