£33m bid to ease Fabian Way traffic
PLANS to build a new road along Swansea’s SA1 with a connecting interchange onto Fabian Way are progressing, despite the project not receiving funding from the Welsh Government this year.
Swansea Council wants the new Southern Link Road to run off Langdon Road, near Hancock and Brown builders’ merchants, through to Baldwins Bridge, near Swansea University’s Bay Campus.
It is estimated that the project, including a reconfigured bridge, would cost around £33 million and ease the pressure on Fabian Way. Some land has already been bought up, and the council submitted a £4.6 million bid to the Welsh Government under a scheme called the Local Transport Fund to start the first phase of the project.
A Welsh Government spokesman said the bid was turned down because a further financial commitment beyond this year was a Local Transport Fund requirement. Ministers, he said, could not guarantee this because the UK Government’s spending review only confirmed budgets for a single year.
The spokesman said £2.6 million has previously been awarded to
Swansea Council to develop the scheme, and that ministers would consider future bids under the Welsh Government’s latest transport strategy.
A Swansea Council spokesman said: “The Baldwins Bridge interchange is a key element in the council’s wider plans to introduce more sustainable transport schemes which, along with improving traffic flows in and out of the city, also help to encourage better use of public transport, as well as cycling and walking.
“We are continuing our negotiations with landowners in and around the existing interchange with a view to developing a scheme which would help us achieve our aims.”
Patterns of travel have changed as numerous office workers continue to work from home on a fulltime or part-time basis, but it’s too early to say how this will pan out in the long term.
Data from Traffic Wales from May 11 showed that traffic on the country’s roads was rising towards the levels seen last August, when Covid restrictions were limited and many people were on holiday.
Public transport use in the UK is back between 30% to 50% of normal.
Speaking in the Senedd in March this year, the then Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, Lee Waters, said the Welsh
Government’s latest transport strategy factored in the need to reduce emissions and that “it is not going to be consistent to return to a predict-andprovide model of road construction as a first
solution to congestion”.
The Welsh Government wants 30% of people across Wales to work remotely. Mr Waters added: “But, equally, a blanket policy of simply not building new roads isn’t a solution either. There will be a case for new construction in certain circumstances and there will be a clear need to fulfil our existing statutory duty to maintain the existing road network.”