COVENTRY council is pressing ahead with controversial plans to radically alter one of the city’s most congested road junctions – despite objections from petititioners.
The traffic-light controlled junction of the A45/Dunchurch Highway and Broad Lane where the WingWah restaurant is located is set to be turned into a traffic island roundabout.
Five months of disruption is set to start this month, with completion of the works due in December.
Funding is coming from the developers of the Bannerbrook Park housing development as part of a section 106 planning agreement, which requires the council to spend the money on highway improvements.
Following a public consultation in which 241 signed a petition calling on the council to abandon the plan, the council is now proposing some modifications to its original scheme.
They include:
* A signal controlled pedestrian crossing on the east side of the junction across Broad Lane to ‘improve pedestrian safety and
convenience’.
* Traffic signal detectors to aid traffic turning right from Dunchurch Highway onto Broad Lane.
* Dunchurch Highway from Brookside Avenue to Rembrandt Close is reverting back to two-way.
* Amendments to the access to the WingWah restaurant are being investigated.
* A shared footway/cycle way for the A45 between Broad Lane and Rembrandt Close.
A council officers’ report considered by public services cabinet member Rachel Lancaster on Tuesday (August 4) states: “The junction of A45/Broad Lane suffers from high levels of traffic congestion and delays at peak times.. with the junction nearly three times over capacity in terms of what it is designed to cope with.
“Over many years complaints have been received from residents and businesses in the area requesting improvements.
“The council has secured external funding to undertake the improvements, plans of which went on public display as part of a consultation exercise in June.”
The e-petition calls for the council to scrap the traffic island scheme and instead make improvements to the existing junction to benefit both road users and pedestrians.
Over 4000 vehicles use the junction at peak times and the average delay is five minutes, but can be much greater, the report states.
Council officers believe simply upgrading the junction will only lead to a small improvement.
They estimate the traffic island scheme will reduce waiting times to an average one minute.
