The business case for a ‘missing link’ between the Ring Road and the new South Bristol Link road terminus in Hengrove has been staring city stakeholders in the face for the past thirty years, according to commercial property specialists Bruton Knowles.
Paul Williams from the firm’s Great George Street office said the £3m required to draw up a convincing case for the Department of Transport would be the best money the city council has spent in years.
He said: “We have backed the South Bristol Link Road scheme from drawing board through the building process and it’s clear Bristol businesses can’t wait for this key route to be finished.
“But we have already pointed out the SBLR terminates at the Cater Road roundabout – where it will link via the existing overloaded road network from Hengrove across to meet the A4 at Brislington Hill.
“That still leaves one of the most convoluted and highly congested junctions in Bristol to navigate before traffic can navigate the mile-long link via the A4 ‘snail trail’ from Brislington Hill to meet the Avon Ring Road at Hicks Gate roundabout, where motorists and haulage firms can pick up the dual-carriageway to link them around to the motorway junctions north of the city.
“Completion of this link would provide a priceless main trunk road route from the M5 to the A371 Weston Road, effectively completing a genuine Ring Road around our city.
“It still would not fully solve the problem, as serious bottlenecks exist around Emersons Green and where the ring-road meets the M32, which will only be alleviated by the creation of a new Junction 18A on the M4, which we have also been supporting calls for.”
Paul said the former Avon County Council should have pushed on and completed the link 30 years ago.
“We believe the current road works will bring South Bristol back up to speed – but our concern is that the new link road will not have the capacity to cope with the new housing and increasing populations which will be expecting to enter the city at Hicks Gate.
“It is vital we cut to the chase and complete a main trunk road or dual carriageway link from north to South rather than adding unconnected lengths of road which terminate in existing, over-loaded suburban chokepoints.”
Head of agency Paul Williams has lobbied for improved infrastructure on behalf of commercial property owners, occupiers and commuters across the area and believes the road should be extended to the key Hicks Gate roundabout to open up effective traffic routes in both directions.
“As things stand the new route will undoubtedly improve the route choice for drivers travelling from South Bristol out toward the A38 and A361 but the same cannot be said for traffic heading the other way.
“Drivers will still face one of the worst junctions in the whole of Bristol – and use every single rat run in South Bristol to sidestep this obstruction, which completely defeats the purpose of the new link road, and makes residents lives a misery particularly at peak hours.
The forthcoming MetroBus will be a step-change in public transport provision, reducing journey times and increasing reliability, and this can be expected to reduce reliance on cars to a degree, however the deficiencies of the road network also need to be addressed for Bristol, and in particular South Bristol, to properly fulfil its potential.”
The businesses we talk to would back the new transport bid to the hilt and we applaud local transport leaders for trying to close the circle.
The bid from city transport leaders has to be submitted to the Department for Transport by July 21 and a decision will be announced in the chancellor’s autumn statement.
