£14.7M PLAN TO CUT QUEUES ON CITY’S SNARLED-UP ROADS
Footpaths and cycle lanes also targeted
A Multi-million pound package of transport improvements has been drawn up to tackle congestion on Stoke-on-trent’s gridlocked roads.
Stoke-on-trent City Council has £14.7 million to spend on a variety of schemes in 2020/21.
The projects will target busy junctions and roundabouts, improve safety within Hanley’s pedestrianised streets, and improve footpaths and cycle lanes.
The projects include:
■ Acquiring the land to finally complete the missing section of the Potteries Way ring road in Hanley;
■ Redesigning the trafficclogged Trentham Road, Stanley Matthews Way and Alderflat Drive junction in Trentham;
■ Redesigning the Werrington Road, Dividy
Road and Bucknall Road junction in Bucknall;
■ Creating an extra right turn lane from Hanley’s Etruria Road towards Potteries Way to reduce queues;
■ Improving the Marina Way roundabout, above, at Festival Park;
■ Installing ‘physical bollards’ on Hanley’s pedestrianised streets;
■ Safety works to try to reduce crashes on Scotia Road between Tunstall and Burslem;
■ Safety improvements outside North Road Academy, in Cobridge, Sneyd Green Primary School, Burnwood Community School in Chell Heath, The Willows Primary School in Penkhull and The Co-op
Academy Stoke-on-trent, in Tunstall;
■ Installing pedestrian crossings in Regent Road, Hanley, Kidsgrove Road, Goldenhill and Lichfield Street, in Hanley;
■ Improvements to bus stops along the entire stretch of Harpfields Road in Hartshill.
Motorists will welcome the planned improvements to Etruria Road which sometimes sees traffic queuing back to the Festival Park roundabout.
A council report states: “This scheme will seek to provide two right turn lanes from Etruria Road towards Potteries Way by reallocating the existing roadspace, subject to traffic surveys and detailed design. This will improve the capacity of this junction and reduce the level of queuing on Etruria Road and reduce the likelihood of these queues extending back to the Festival Park roundabout.”
The council will have to acquire land to carry out its planned improvements to the transport network on Festival Park.
The report added: “This scheme involves improvements to the Marina Way roundabout, new pedestrian crossing facilities on Ridgehouse Drive and also improvements to the traffic signal arrangements on the main A53 Festival Park roundabout.”
And the long-awaited completion of the Potteries Way ring road remains in the design stage.
The council report states: “We aim to finalise the design and acquire by negotiation strategically-important land to facilitate the future delivery of the city centre ring road between Century Street and New Century Street through the Fuchs Lubricant’s site.”