Major upgrades have been proposed for a key stretch of the A36 in Wiltshire. National Highways unveiled plans at a Salisbury City Council full council meeting for improvements to the Southampton Road section of the route, which they say carries both significant volumes of strategic and local traffic, says the Salisbury Journal.

National Highways Route Manager, Chris Hildrup said:

“The opportunity to build new infrastructure is limited. “The A36 carries traffic strategic traffic but it also carries an awful lot of local traffic. We are very mindful that we need to look at ways to best improve capacity on that road.”

“We are looking to improve traffic flows and journey reliability along this section of the A36 by increasing lanes and capacity at the College and Bourne Way roundabouts.”

Mr Hildrup added:

“One of the criteria for the scheme is that it has to be delivered and open for business by 2031, so we are up against it.”

Ben Atwill, chief designer at delivery partners WSP and one of the scheme’s principle engineers, explained that the project will involve upgrades to the College Roundabout.

“Reconfiguring and signalising College Roundabout, largening the roundabout, additional lanes on each of the entry and exit arms and the two existing left hand lanes will be reinstated all controlled by signals.

“This will allow more vehicles to pass the junction at any one time and reduce delays to journey times on the A36 and the local authority network.”

The upgrades will require a larger footprint, taking land from both Wiltshire Council to the west and Salisbury City Council to the south.

Mr Hildrup said that the estimated £25m cost is “not a lot of money for this type of engineering” and identified ecology as “probably our biggest risk.”

(Picture: National Highways)