National Highways is set to improve safety across the South West of England with £13m of investment into several schemes, starting with the A36 in Wiltshire and the A30 at Junction 29 of the M5 in Exeter.
Targeted safety enhancements on the A36 at Codford St Peter, which has seen a number of serious collisions, will begin this month.
One cause of these recorded collisions is the inappropriate overtaking of A36 vehicles turning left into Codford (by southbound A36 vehicles), due to the short and narrow left turn lane on the A36.
To improve safety on this section of road, National Highways will be:
• Building a new, dedicated left turn lane for eastbound vehicles exiting the A36 into Codford St Peter to help reduce unsafe overtaking manoeuvres
• Ugrading drainage systems to help ensure surface water is cleared from the carriageway as quickly as possible
• Improving pedestrian crossing points on the A36 between High Street and Sherrington Lane
• Renewing road markings
• Improving signage
• Carrying out vegetation works to enhance the condition and biodiversity of the nearby woodland.
Extending the length and width of the left turn lane will reduce inappropriate overtaking and improve the visibility of all vehicles approaching the junction.
The work will start on Monday 20 April and is expected to take seven weeks to complete. Works will be completed under four-way temporary traffic lights, weekend closures, weeknight closures, and junction closures.
Similarly, on the A30 around the M5 junction 29, National Highways will be installing seven yellow box junctions on both the eastbound and westbound carriageways.
Over the past five years, there have been 13 reported collisions on the A30 around junction 29, between the northbound off-slip road and the Science Park junction.
More than three-quarters of these related to vehicles failing to comply with red traffic signals.
The box junctions aim to help prevent vehicles causing an obstruction by queuing across the junction during busy periods, enabling the free-flow of traffic. The boxes will be enforced by police from a camera van bay that will also be installed.
Jack Mason, South West Road Safety Manager, said:
” Road safety is, and will always be, our number one priority; that is why our ambition remains that no-one should be harmed while travelling or working on our roads.
“We’re always exploring ways to make our roads safer by using collision data, risk assessments and insights to better understand driver behaviour.
“The enhancements we are introducing on the A36 and A30 are targeted works and just the beginning of improvements this year, aiming to reduce the number of people harmed on the region’s roads.
“Our roads are a vital part of everyone’s lives, and we’ll never stop exploring ways to improve on safety and reliability.”
(Picture: National Highways)
