Borough council to consult on traffic calming

WARRINGTON Borough Council is today launching a four-week public consultation asking people to have their say on the timing of traffic calming measures.
It follows feedback from residents during a public consultation for the Centre Park Link highways scheme.
Residents expressed concern about the potential impact of the new link road on traffic speeds, volumes and routing in the vicinity of Gainsborough Road.
As a result, the council carried out traffic surveys in the area in November 2018 to assess traffic conditions. The key findings included:
• Average traffic speeds were recorded at 28mph on Gainsborough Road;
• The percentage of HGVs (over 7.5 tonnes) on Gainsborough Road was 1 per cent during the 12-hour survey (7am-7pm)
• 50 per cent of traffic was identified as through traffic (directly travelling between Chester Road and Wilderspool Causeway).
The council is proposing three options for the timing of traffic calming measures, and is asking for people’s views on:
Option A: Initial Monitoring and Review – Undertake further traffic surveys in 2021, 6 months post-opening of Centre Park Link to establish any change in vehicle speeds, volumes and distribution prior to the implementation of any traffic calming measures. The advantage of this option is that it will allow officers to identify specific issues to be mitigated prior to implementation of any measures. A further public consultation would take place after the monitoring period on the proposed measures.
Option B: Implementation of traffic calming measures (chicanes) in advance of the opening of Centre Park Link on a permanent basis – The purpose of this form of traffic calming is to manage the average speed of vehicles along the route and also to make the route less attractive to motorists. All forms of traffic calming measures can also have negative implications. The disadvantages of this option are that chicanes will remove available on-street car parking outside some properties and the intermittent acceleration and braking of vehicles may have a negative impact on noise disturbance and air quality. In addition, vehicles may accelerate on the approach to chicanes to ‘beat’ the oncoming driver to the chicane.
Option C: Implementation of traffic calming measures in advance of the opening of Centre Park Link on a temporary experimental basis – Implement chicanes along Gainsborough Road as in Option B but on a temporary basis. Traffic surveys would be undertaken following installation to monitor the effectiveness of the measures. Further public consultation would be undertaken to present the results of the monitoring surveys and gain feedback on whether residents would like the traffic calming measures installed permanently or amended.
Further public consultation on the location of the chicanes whether temporary or permanent will take place prior to implementation.
People can get involved in the consultation by visiting warrington.gov.uk/consultations to complete an online survey.
In addition, there will be two drop-in sessions at St Werburgh’s Community Hub, Boswell Avenue, WA4 6DQ, where council officers will be available to provide more information and answer questions on the options. The sessions take place at the following dates and times:
• Tuesday January 28, 16:00-20:00
• Saturday February 1, 10:00-13:00
Paper copies of the survey will be available at these events.
Warrington Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for transportation, highways and public realm, Cllr Hans Mundry, said: “Centre Park Link is a major transport project for Warrington, and that’s why we’re consulting closely with local people, to make sure their views are heard at every step of the way.
“We’ve listened to feedback and concerns from the public about how the scheme could impact on the Gainsborough Road area, and have come up with a number of options over when to introduce traffic calming measures. This consultation gives residents and road users the opportunity to have their say on these options and help us get it right.”
The consultation runs from today until 17 February.
For more information, contact the project team at [email protected].  Further details on the Centre Park Link scheme can be found at warrington.gov.uk/centreparklink