City Council makes £1m congestion plea to government
Nottingham City Council has outlined £1 million worth of proposals which could help to alleviate congestion on the city’s streets.
Cllr Adele Williams, portfolio holder for transport, has written to the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps asking for help to ease the impact of Highways England’s works on Clifton Bridge.
Repair work on the bridge will not be complete until 31 December “at the earliest,” and Williams has asked Shapps for his support in ensuring action is taken given the degree of disruption around the city.
In the letter, Cllr Williams points out that Clifton Bridge is the busiest stretch of road in Nottingham, normally carrying 100,000 vehicle movements a day, and notes that its partial closure has caused havoc elsewhere in the city.
For example, 15,000 more outbound daily vehicle movements than normal are currently being registered over Lady Bay Bridge and Trent Bridge.
The council has been carrying out a range of measures aimed at easing the disruption, including adjusting traffic signals, keeping certain junctions clear at key times with the help of Nottinghamshire Police, encouraging public transport use and keeping other roadworks under review.
Now, it is asking Highways England to consider a range of measures including temporary park & ride options; extra signs including the use of Smart Motorway boards on the M1; special offers to promote public transport; additional travel planning with major employers and for events and ongoing support for police presence to keep key junctions clear – as well as introducing yellow box lining and bus/tram gates at certain junctions.
Cllr Williams said: “We are pleased that Highways England are working to open a second outbound lane over Clifton Bridge, and hope that helps to ease congestion. But with such a major, busy intersection not expected to fully reopen until the end of the year, there’s bound to be ongoing disruption for people trying to travel in and around the city.
“We have major works of our own starting later this year to reconfigure roads and improve the environment in the city’s Southside as part of the area’s current transformation. This has been carefully planned over the last five years to minimise disruption but clearly this is now due to take place in the context of the significant extra pressure placed on our own road network by the Highways England work at Clifton Bridge.
“We are saying to Highways England and the Government that it is imperative that all that can be done to ease this pressure is done. We have outlined a range of proposals so that Nottingham can continue to function effectively for the remainder of the Clifton Bridge works as a centre of commerce and industry, a destination for visitors and a city home to over 300,000 people.”
Image: Andy Jamieson / Clifton Bridge /
