Question
The new southern distributor road will exit at Tesco roundabout on the Finchampstead Road. The Finchampstead Road is already one of the most congested roads in Wokingham, which is regularly grid-locked. This new road will likely be used by large commercial vehicles, which will also increase the environmental impact and congestion. How many vehicles does WBC estimate will be added to this grid-locked road at peak-time?
Minutes:
Question
The new Southern Distributor Road will exit at Tesco roundabout on the Finchampstead Road. The Finchampstead Road is already one of the most congested roads in Wokingham, which is regularly grid-locked. This new road will likely be used by large commercial vehicles, which will also increase the environmental impact and congestion. How many vehicles does WBC estimate will be added to this grid-locked road at peak-time?
Answer
Looking at the answer here I do not have a number for you but I am well aware, having been the Executive Member for Highways twice in my history, I do understand what you are talking about. I do understand the issues you are talking about.
You are correct that the Southern Wokingham Distributor Road will connect into the highway network at the roundabout adjacent to Tesco. The road will provide a route from the London Road, west of Coppid Beech roundabout, over the new railway bridge, through to the A321 Finchampstead Road.
The Southern Distributor Road is not intended to replace the A329 London Road through the town, but instead would supplement it, providing users with greater choice, whilst also providing resilience to our network. The Council is currently working on a road signing strategy for all new roads and therefore no decision has yet been made on routing of HGVs. However the road will be designated to a standard that will be able to cater for them. The road is a piece of infrastructure identified to mitigate growth and development alongside many other major pieces of infrastructure currently being progressed by the Council.
The road and any housing applications associated with the South Wokingham area will be submitted for planning permission along with a range of supporting documents that will cover environmental and transport matters, all of which will be publicly available on the Council’s planning portal when received.
The transport work is still being progressed by the major projects team, and by the developer’s consultants associated with the housing elements, and therefore until this is completed, it would not be possible to provide an estimate of traffic flows at this stage, as even the simplest of junction designs can encourage or discourage traffic movements. The full planning submission needs to be assessed as a complete package and the findings, and any recommendation made by Officers, will be set out in detail to members of the Planning Committee prior to any permission being granted.
I think also there are other roads to the other side of the railway line which traffic could divert to instead of coming up to this junction. They could divert earlier on o some of the other roads that exist and then pick up the Southern Distributor Road and access the London Road through the development in order to by-pass the Town and certainly this was intended to provide a by-pass for the Town.
I think we are well aware of the congestion aspects, both at the two railway bridges, and I think there have been discussions as to how we might mitigate some of that but no further conclusions have been arrived at. But I am sure that we will keep it under consideration simply because we do understand as many Councillors here are residents of Wokingham or Wokingham Without and therefore congestion issues affect us all and concern us all and all sorts of residents as well so we will be trying our best to mitigate as much congestion as we can.
Supplementary Question
So in relation to commercial vehicles I think the roadworks will require either digging down under the bridges or something like this to increase the capacity so that large vehicles can go actually under the railways. Do you know how long these works will take because I presume this will close these bridges?
Supplementary Answer
I am aware of the principles which you are talking about and given the issues around congestion in Peach Street over the last couple of years when I held the Highways portfolio recently I was very concerned about the impact, particularly on the southern bridge onto the Finchampstead Road, and the consequences of congestion in that area.
So do I have an answer to your question, no not specifically, but again I do understand the concerns that you are raising and have expressed them to Officers with a “can we find other solutions”. I think the Northern bridge is ok but I think there are issues with the Southern bridge but again it depends on the size and the height of the vehicles. If people are accessing Molly Millar’s I think currently they would normally go over the level crossing rather than under the bridges. But I think some of the lorries have got special height reducing tyres or something I think which does enable them to get under bridges but there are a whole load of issues that we are aware of which are quite complex but watch this space.