A27 News
The A27 passes through our area and over the past thirty years or so there have been various plans and consultations about it. In 2015, just such a new consultation began via the A27 Working Group. The North Lancing Community Association was invited to have representative on the Working Group and our committee appointed David Stevenson to do that for use. A big "thank you" to David who attends meetings and then provides a summary or shares news about the Working group with our members. All those go onto our newsletter as well as being on our website. Please note that updates are in chronological order so you will need to scroll down the page for the latest news
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The Background
A27 Upgrade You will probably know about the planned upgrade to the A27, in particular between the Airport traffic lights and Swandean. There is a group called the A27 Working Group comprised of various Business organisations, local Politicians and MPs and various Residents groups; I am part of that group, representing the NLCA. This is just a quick update on what I have already said in previous newsletters and Business meetings. It’s a quick one because not much has happened, and not much is due to happen from our point of view for some time. Here is a summary of the timetable:
1. Options Identification – Nov 2015 to Nov 2016
2. Options Selection – Nov 2016 to July 2017
3. Preliminary Design – July 2017 to July 2018
4. Statutory Procedures & Powers – July 2018 to Aug 2019
5. Construction Preparation - Aug 2019 to March 2020 6. Construction, Commissioning & Handover – March 2020 to March 2022
Key milestones: 1. Public Consultations – Spring 2017
2. Consultations Report - Summer 2017
3. Preferred Route Announcement - Summer 2017
So you see, it’s a long term plan. However, Highways England are already narrowing down their options, and seem to be concentrating on a single route along the existing road, changing the current single track portion into a dual carriageway and improving junctions. There are no plans for expensive tunnelling or new ‘expressway’ options. Many of the local resident groups have expressed concern particularly about the ‘dualling’ and have formed a new group, Adur and Worthing Residents Association’ (AWRA); we are part of that group, whose remit is to represent better the views of the locals (which are not always in accord with Businesses and Politicians). The main objection to the dualling idea is based on the opinion that it will have no beneficial effect, in that it will simply generate more traffic (a common problem when the capacity of a road is increased), but that it will have a seriously detrimental effect of blighting many households with the possibility of compulsorily purchasing and demolishing their homes, and will of course cost a lot of taxpayers money, quite possibly to little or no avail This is not to mention the huge disruption during the build for at least two years. The AWRA want Highways England to put much more consideration into intelligent traffic management than they seem to be doing; these have been implemented in several towns and cities around the world so this is not setting a precedent and could be a lot more effective and cheaper than adopting the usual measure of adding lanes, which anyone who has used the M25 for a few years will know has little or no beneficial effect on traffic congestion. The ten lane section to the South is often the most congested, doing a half decent impression of a busy car park a lot of the time! The AWRA is asking for local resident’s views about the Upgrade, so that they can accurately represent them to Highways England and other organisations (including the A27 Working Group), so if you have something you want to say do please get in touch David Stevenson [email protected]
A27 Improvement Project – an update from David Stevenson November 2016
You will probably know about the public meeting held on Friday 28 October at the Pavilion Theatre in Worthing. It was very well attended, around 800 or so and the auditorium was full. We had presentations from the two local MPs, our own Tim Loughton and Sir Peter Bottomley, and also from Highways England (who are responsible to the Government for the Project), and from some local Business people who were extolling the need for improvements to the Road from a business perspective. There was also a very interesting presentation from Stephen Cranford who works for BBC Sussex, but has also done a lot of work over many years studying traffic behaviour and management, and clearly knew what he was talking about. The summary of his presentation, backed up with some good evidence, was that there is little point in converting the existing A27 in Worthing into a dual carriageway, or widening the existing dual carriageway in Lancing (some people know that intuitively); it is the junctions which nearly always cause problems with traffic congestion, and improving those will have a much more beneficial effect, if done properly. I liked his point when he said ‘instead of sitting in a traffic jam behind someone you will be sitting next to them’! This may be just as well, because one of the points which Highways England made was that they are only going to be given between 50 and 100 million pounds for the Adur and Worthing section of the work (how that figure was originally arrived at was unclear). The consensus, particularly emphasised by Tim Loughton, was that this was nowhere near enough to carry out major road building programmes and ‘dualling’ was therefore very unlikely, but may be enough to improve junctions. Judging by various questions raised by the Public and the general reaction, most people seem to be against upgrading the existing route, however that is done, and favour a proper by-pass, possibly running along the existing road from the Sussex Pad, bypassing Steyning, on to Washington and on from there back to the A27 west of Worthing. We were told in no uncertain terms that this option, as well as a tunnel, was discounted in the early stages due to cost and problems involving the environment, National Park and so on. So now we wait for Highways England to finish their feasibility studies and come up with various options to improve the existing route, and public consultations are due to start on that around the Summer next year. Following all the statutory preparatory work, the actual construction work is planned to start in 2020, lasting between two and three years. Highways England stated that during the Works ‘traffic management plans’ would be in place to minimise disruption; what that actually means in terms of how much more clogged up the road will become, presumably we will have to wait and see; so don’t expect the traffic flow (or lack of it) along the A27 to improve any time soon, and there is always the possibility that there will actually be no improvement at all if this is all being done on a shoestring budget…
A27 Upgrade You will probably know about the planned upgrade to the A27, in particular between the Airport traffic lights and Swandean. There is a group called the A27 Working Group comprised of various Business organisations, local Politicians and MPs and various Residents groups; I am part of that group, representing the NLCA. This is just a quick update on what I have already said in previous newsletters and Business meetings. It’s a quick one because not much has happened, and not much is due to happen from our point of view for some time. Here is a summary of the timetable:
1. Options Identification – Nov 2015 to Nov 2016
2. Options Selection – Nov 2016 to July 2017
3. Preliminary Design – July 2017 to July 2018
4. Statutory Procedures & Powers – July 2018 to Aug 2019
5. Construction Preparation - Aug 2019 to March 2020 6. Construction, Commissioning & Handover – March 2020 to March 2022
Key milestones: 1. Public Consultations – Spring 2017
2. Consultations Report - Summer 2017
3. Preferred Route Announcement - Summer 2017
So you see, it’s a long term plan. However, Highways England are already narrowing down their options, and seem to be concentrating on a single route along the existing road, changing the current single track portion into a dual carriageway and improving junctions. There are no plans for expensive tunnelling or new ‘expressway’ options. Many of the local resident groups have expressed concern particularly about the ‘dualling’ and have formed a new group, Adur and Worthing Residents Association’ (AWRA); we are part of that group, whose remit is to represent better the views of the locals (which are not always in accord with Businesses and Politicians). The main objection to the dualling idea is based on the opinion that it will have no beneficial effect, in that it will simply generate more traffic (a common problem when the capacity of a road is increased), but that it will have a seriously detrimental effect of blighting many households with the possibility of compulsorily purchasing and demolishing their homes, and will of course cost a lot of taxpayers money, quite possibly to little or no avail This is not to mention the huge disruption during the build for at least two years. The AWRA want Highways England to put much more consideration into intelligent traffic management than they seem to be doing; these have been implemented in several towns and cities around the world so this is not setting a precedent and could be a lot more effective and cheaper than adopting the usual measure of adding lanes, which anyone who has used the M25 for a few years will know has little or no beneficial effect on traffic congestion. The ten lane section to the South is often the most congested, doing a half decent impression of a busy car park a lot of the time! The AWRA is asking for local resident’s views about the Upgrade, so that they can accurately represent them to Highways England and other organisations (including the A27 Working Group), so if you have something you want to say do please get in touch David Stevenson [email protected]
A27 Improvement Project – an update from David Stevenson November 2016
You will probably know about the public meeting held on Friday 28 October at the Pavilion Theatre in Worthing. It was very well attended, around 800 or so and the auditorium was full. We had presentations from the two local MPs, our own Tim Loughton and Sir Peter Bottomley, and also from Highways England (who are responsible to the Government for the Project), and from some local Business people who were extolling the need for improvements to the Road from a business perspective. There was also a very interesting presentation from Stephen Cranford who works for BBC Sussex, but has also done a lot of work over many years studying traffic behaviour and management, and clearly knew what he was talking about. The summary of his presentation, backed up with some good evidence, was that there is little point in converting the existing A27 in Worthing into a dual carriageway, or widening the existing dual carriageway in Lancing (some people know that intuitively); it is the junctions which nearly always cause problems with traffic congestion, and improving those will have a much more beneficial effect, if done properly. I liked his point when he said ‘instead of sitting in a traffic jam behind someone you will be sitting next to them’! This may be just as well, because one of the points which Highways England made was that they are only going to be given between 50 and 100 million pounds for the Adur and Worthing section of the work (how that figure was originally arrived at was unclear). The consensus, particularly emphasised by Tim Loughton, was that this was nowhere near enough to carry out major road building programmes and ‘dualling’ was therefore very unlikely, but may be enough to improve junctions. Judging by various questions raised by the Public and the general reaction, most people seem to be against upgrading the existing route, however that is done, and favour a proper by-pass, possibly running along the existing road from the Sussex Pad, bypassing Steyning, on to Washington and on from there back to the A27 west of Worthing. We were told in no uncertain terms that this option, as well as a tunnel, was discounted in the early stages due to cost and problems involving the environment, National Park and so on. So now we wait for Highways England to finish their feasibility studies and come up with various options to improve the existing route, and public consultations are due to start on that around the Summer next year. Following all the statutory preparatory work, the actual construction work is planned to start in 2020, lasting between two and three years. Highways England stated that during the Works ‘traffic management plans’ would be in place to minimise disruption; what that actually means in terms of how much more clogged up the road will become, presumably we will have to wait and see; so don’t expect the traffic flow (or lack of it) along the A27 to improve any time soon, and there is always the possibility that there will actually be no improvement at all if this is all being done on a shoestring budget…