Agenda item

The Board received a report of the Strategic Director – Environment, which advised Members of the extent and likely cause of congestion on the Murdishaw Avenue arm of the Murdishaw Roundabout, to consider the likely impact of the Linnets Football Club on traffic flows and road capacity, and to export potential options for improving capacity.

The Board was advised that recent traffic surveys and observations had shown that highway capacity problems were occurring on the Murdishaw Avenue arm of the southern expressway – Murdishaw Avenue – Chester Road junction. Queues were experienced during the morning peak. These queues and the consequent delays along with the potential for rat running to adjacent to residential areas, had been the cause of concern for some time.

Following specific concerns expressed by one of the elected Members for the area, Officers were recently requested to investigate the extent of the problem and report back on potential solutions.

It was noted that these issues were brought further into focus during the consideration of the proposal to upgrade the existing sports ground to house the Runcorn Linnets Football Club. Whilst considering the application, it was not considered necessary to demand traffic flow information, as the applicant had stated that match traffic would be on Saturday afternoon and Tuesday evenings, which were outside of the morning peak period when the problem was most significant. It was agreed that the Chairman of the Urban Renewal Policy and Performance Board and Development Control Committee would meet together with officers in order to agree a scope to address the traffic flow concerns in the surrounding area to Halton Sports.

The Board was further advised that a local safety scheme had been implemented at the roundabout in 2004. This scheme was designed to address a number of issues, including excessive speeds on the approaches and high circulatory speeds and loss of control/weaving incidents.

It was noted that generally, the operation of the roundabout had improved with the introduction of circulatory area from 2 lanes to 1, but capacity had been reduced, which resulted in queues in the morning.

The Board was advised that a possible solution to these queues may be to restore the Murdishaw Avenue approach to 2 lanes with separate turning markings, with a corresponding widening of the circulatory carriageway, downstream of this entry.

It was noted that as queue lengths increased, so did the pressure on drivers to take chances entering the roundabout and although not recorded by the policy as a factor, it was believed that many of the incidents stemmed from waiting drivers looking at the circulatory traffic flows and anticipating the behaviour of the driver in front. It was therefore considered worthwhile to install a barrier on a trial basis, monitoring accidents over 12 months, to block the view to the right for drivers travelling towards the roundabout from Murdishaw Avenue, to prevent this happening. The barrier/blocking would extend to within one car length of the give way line.

The Board was advised that restoring the circulatory area to two lanes immediately downstream of the Murdishaw Avenue access, would allow the Murdishaw Avenue approach to be widened to two dedicated lanes, as this side of the roundabout was not a particular problem area before the 2004 scheme. The Murdishaw Avenue access had been identified as an accident cluster site and had already been scheduled to be considered as a local safety scheme for measures in 2010/11, so it was possible that a scheme could be implemented using existing budgets during the coming financial year.

The Board was further advised that, in addition, to the above analysis by Council officers, AOne+ were currently carrying out traffic assessments in the area on behalf of the Highways Agency, relating to the potential replacement of the A56 Bridge over the M56 motorway. The Council was awaiting their final traffic data and modelling results.

The report also set out a number of additional options which had been considered, as detailed in the report. The Board was advised that, in the short term, it was considered that the proposal discussed in the report should be progressed, as the preferred option, and that a detailed evaluation of its feasibility be carried out, with a view to its implementation during the next financial year. It was also proposed that the Highway Agency proposals should be studied in detail by Council Officers, to check where there would be any reduction in delays as a result of any of the agency schemes.

Finally, it was proposed that the outcome of these studies be conveyed to Elected Members for the area and the Chairman of the PPB.

Councillors D. Cargill and Lloyd Jones had attended the meeting as Ward Councillors and were invited to address the Board by the Chairman. In doing so they raised safety issues relating to the installation of a visibility barrier. It was noted that a safety audit would be taken before installation of the barrier and it was agreed that the Board be provided with examples of successful similar screen usage to that suggested.

RESOLVED: That

(1)               the proposal discussed in Section 3.7 of this report should be progressed, as the preferred option, and that a detailed evaluation of its feasibility be carried out, with a view to its implementation during the next financial year, subject to feasibility, safety, and affordability constraints. Such a scheme would include widening of the Murdishaw Avenue approach and eastern side of the circulatory carriageway to two lanes, and installing visibility barriers on a trial basis;

(2)               the Highways Agency proposals should be studied in detail by Council Officers, to check whether there will be any reduction in delays as a result of any other Agency Schemes;

(3)       the outcome of these studies be conveyed to the Elected Members for the area and the Chairman of this Board so that they will be aware of whether a scheme or safety measures can be progressed and when; and

(4)       the Board be provided with examples of successful similar screen usage to that suggested.