Relief planned at major junction

8:00am Friday 9th May 2008

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A NEW relief road at Pear Tree could be included in an £88m transport package to ease congestion on roads around Oxford.

The link road would connect the A40 and A44 to take traffic away from the Wolvercote roundabout and roads north of the city.

It is one of the options being looked at by county council planners, who are investigating a package of improvements to main routes into Oxford.

With the idea of turning the A34 into a three-lane motorway ruled out, it has emerged that the county council is focusing on major ring road junctions north and south of the city.

The idea of a new link road near Pear Tree has been previously included in county council planning documents. But County Hall says the scheme could now be achievable thanks to a £62m allocation from the Regional Transport Board towards the Access to Oxford scheme.

Daniel Round, principal transport planner for Access to Oxford, said: "The difference is that there is now a great deal of funding available. We are wiping the slate clean and going back to the drawing board. There is potential at Pear Tree to put a link road in to create a large one-way gyratory system."

It is understood that the link road would be built across a field behind the BMW garage near the Wolvercote roundabout to create a new route between the A40 and A44.

He said the council was also looking to see how access to Oxford could be improved at all three junctions north of the city - Pear Tree, Wolvercote and Banbury Road.

It is also investigating improvements to the south of the city at Heyford Hill, Kennington and the Hinksey interchange.

There is likely to be a proposal for a bus priority slip road off the A34 at Hinksey Hill to speed up bus services between Oxford and Abingdon.

Ian Hudspeth, county council cabinet member for transport, said: "Traffic crawls up from Pear Tree to Wolvercote. It is a particularly bad bottleneck. The link road would be quite short but it could greatly relieve pressure on the Wolvercote roundabout, with a beneficial knock-on effect for A40 users.

"I'm sure some people would have wanted to see a bigger scheme, with a road linking the A40 to the A34. But we could not do that without the co-operation of the Highways Authority."

Planners say they are still analysing the results of a survey into the travel habits of thousands of people across Oxfordshire, before detailed plans are drawn up and submitted to the Government.

But the county's assistant head of transport, Steve Smith, said the prospect of tens of thousands of new homes and the completion of the new Westgate Centre meant County Hall anti-congestion measures needed to move forward quickly.

Plans for electronic road signs offering motorists live information will go to the county council cabinet on May 20.

When the signs are installed they will give motorists advanced warning of roadworks, congestion, accidents and tell drivers when the city's park-and-rides or car parks are full.

The signs will be sited early next year at Yarnton, Eynsham, Wolvercote, Sandford, Cumnor and the A40. They are likely to appear on the A34 after talks with the Highways Agency.