Letter: My Suggestion For Reducing Guildford Traffic

Published on: 21 Nov, 2015
Updated on: 21 Nov, 2015

From Mike Pugh

Jim Collin’s letter A Proposal to Decrease Through Village Traffic suggesting additional links to/from the A3 north-east of Guildford, brought to mind a suggestion that I made to a Guildford Borough Council (GBC), transport officer in August of last year, which was aimed at reducing traffic having to pass through the town.

My proposal followed the consultation Guildford Town and Approaches Movement Study – Strategy Report, and is reproduced below (but without the annotated map attachment that illustrated my proposal).

I wrote: “….I note that Arup’s Guildford Town and Approaches Movement Study Strategy Report makes the following recommendation in respect of minimising the impact of through traffic on Guildford’s Local Road Network:

Guildford Borough Council should work with the Highways Agency to address challenges on the A3 trunk road and develop improvements that encourage traffic to use the A3 for through movements rather than travel through Guildford town centre.

I am therefore generally in favour of the early development of Gosden Hill Farm, as it provides an opportunity to provide access to the A3 southbound for residents in Burpham, Merrow, Boxgrove and Jacobs Well, which avoids the need to contribute to the morning traffic problems along Ladymead, Midleton Road and the on-slip road to the A3 southbound, on the west side of town. However, this only relieves traffic problems in the mornings: drivers on their return trips in the afternoon rush hours have no option but to battle their way through heavily trafficked roads within Guildford.

There is a missed opportunity, with the development of this site, to provide the much needed exit from the A3 northbound on the east side of Guildford. This would remove the need for drivers wishing to travel to Merrow, Boxgrove, Jacobs Well and Burpham (including the new development of Gosden Hill Farm) who are travelling on the A3 northbound or A31 having to struggle through congested roads within Guildford in peak periods.

There could be significant benefits to many parts of the traffic network within Guildford as a result, as should be demonstrated by modelling local road network traffic with and without such an off-slip on the A3 northbound.

…An off-slip road on the A3 northbound, terminating in the Gosden Hill farm development would need to cross both carriageways of the A3. This may be either via an over-bridge or in a cut-and-cover box section underpass.

An over-bridge would probably be a less expensive solution, with less disruption to A3 traffic, but may require limited land purchase adjacent to the north side of the A3 corridor to minimise the construction cost of the over-bridge section by reducing the span. The underpass solution would be more disruptive to A3 traffic but would be less visually intrusive, and may obviate the need for additional land purchase.

Surface water drainage/ flood prevention would be an additional consideration for an underpass solution. The over-bridge could be a (wide) single lane, but the underpass would probably need to be two-lane, for emergency access. For discussion purposes, the following comments relate to a possible over-bridge solution.

The existing on-slip road from Clay Lane may be too close to any crossing point to the Gosden Hill Farm site to locate the off-slip road to the east of it. It may therefore be necessary to extend the on-slip road to join the A3 after the off-slip road.

I understand that a roundabout is currently under consideration for linking the re-located A3 off-slip and new on-slip roads to the local road network. Depending on the location of this roundabout within the development, the up ramp to the over-bridge could start in the vicinity of the junction of the rear entrance to Sutton Place with the northbound carriageway of the A3.

This junction is approximately 700m beyond the point at which the on-slip road begins to join the A3. Given the land constraints it may be necessary to locate the up ramp within the inner lane of the A3, limiting the northbound carriageway to two lanes at this point.

The ramp would have a retaining wall on each side until it is economic to continue rising as a deck supported on beams and columns. On reaching highway bridge clearance height, it would ‘S’ curve northwards and southwards to reduce the span across the A3.

If necessary, the on-slip road would be extended eastwards, separated from the A3 by a barrier, up to the start of the off-slip ramp. It would pick up the connection with the Sutton Place rear access and run alongside the rising on-slip ramp, continuing under the first curve of the elevated on-slip road, before merging with the A3, where it would re-start the third lane of the carriageway.

The A3 crossing would require column support within the central reservation, but disruption to the A3 traffic could be reduced with night closures for the installation of main span beams.

The down ramp within the new development would terminate in the vicinity of the connecting roundabout. It could be aligned close to the innermost lane of the A3, with a tight bend at the foot of the ramp to join the roundabout. The ‘S’ curve at the southern end of the main bridge span would remain at highway bridge clearance height, with the new on-slip road passing beneath it.

[In my map (not shown)] the roundabout is shown to be midway along the frontage of Gosden Hill Farm with the A3. If it is located further south, then extension of the northbound on-slip would be obligatory. If located further north, extension of the northbound on-slip may not be necessary.

I would be most grateful if you would give this suggestion your serious consideration, and discuss the feasibility of such an enhancement to the highway network with your colleagues in County Highways.

Without this intervention I would venture to suggest that the impact of the development at Gosden Hill Farm on the local road network within the borough, particularly within the town centre and its fringes, would not be sufficiently mitigated.”

In his response, the Transport officer emailed: “Thank you for your email. I will share this with the representatives of the Highways Agency and Surrey County Council.”

I have heard nothing from anyone from GBC, Surrey County Council or the Highways Agency since.

Share This Post