No M4 relief road alternatives till next year

10:30am Monday 19th October 2009 in News Photograph of the Author By Alison Sanders

PLANS for alternatives to the scrapped M4 relief road are set to be announced early next year.

After 20 years of discussions, the Assembly scrapped plans for a controversial £1 billion M4 relief road in July.

It came to light in August how plans for the six lane road had cost the public more than £15 million.

But since then there has been no news as to exactly when alternatives will be put in place to ease congestion on the M4.

Some traffic measures have already started with work on widening the road and setting up a variable speed limit system.

But the Assembly is also looking into the possibility of buying the Llanwern steelworks access road from Corus and upgrading it to a trunk road.

The Assembly is in discussions with Newport city council about linking one end of this road with the M4 and the other end with the Southern Distributor Road.

Other measures include creating permanent park and ride and car share sites at Llanwern, which is already going to be a temporary site during the Ryder Cup, and at Severn Tunnel Junction.

Improvements to the road network around Newport would focus on the Tredegar Park junction, Brynglas Tunnels and Coldra roundabout to ease the movement of local traffic.

All of these plans will be subject to approval and planning permission and so the Assembly does not expect to release its formal proposals and timetables until the beginning of next year.

An Assembly spokesman said it is keen to deliver improvements along the M4 corridor as quickly as possible.

But local businesses are concerned further waiting is going to put more pressure on Gwent’s roads and impact on trade and business which are already struggling because of the economic climate.

Tony Elston of Elston's Butchers in the market, said an M4 relief road should have ideally been created before Newport holds the Ryder Cup next year.

He said: "The city needs major investment and there doesn't seem to be a lot going on."

Comments(23)

Owain Vaughan says...
11:35am Mon 19 Oct 09

Big civil engineering projects under the Assembly have come to an end. They just don't have the financial muscle to invest in such things. Abolish the assembly and then we can go back to the UK government investing in such necessary schemes.

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Nevasleep says...
11:47am Mon 19 Oct 09

I'd like to see a new single/dual carriage road going from the SDR in Maesglas, and follow the railway line to rover way/Newport Road in Cardiff....Along with the Llanwern road too, although what is happening with the Llanwern developement(the houses/village etc)?

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devonplace says...
12:02pm Mon 19 Oct 09

Any M4 relief road alternatives will simply not work in a few years time. The sooner the WAG realises this the sooner we can get the M4 Relief Road built. The longer they leave it the more expensive it will get. In the meantime, more misery for the motorists and businesses. Newport will have to live with being gridlocked each time the M4 closes.

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lostinspace says...
12:49pm Mon 19 Oct 09

It would be interesting to know if WAG continue to keep the route protected. My guess is they will and I agree the sooner it is built the better.
Until then we face gridlock and no public transport will never be able to replace the need for good quality, well maintained roads.

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Neck-Romancer says...
1:00pm Mon 19 Oct 09

The problem with Newports roads is undoubtedly the Brynglas Tunnels - so - just knock a huge V shape in the mountain above the tunnels and make the motorway a 3 line highway - job done - ok so there would be some people to rehome on top of the bridge - but this course of action is bound to be cheaper than the 15 gazillion pounds other schemes would have cost - simples!

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Marcusian says...
1:39pm Mon 19 Oct 09

Owain Vaughan wrote:
Big civil engineering projects under the Assembly have come to an end. They just don't have the financial muscle to invest in such things. Abolish the assembly and then we can go back to the UK government investing in such necessary schemes.
Or Owain, we could do something really radical and give the Assembly the ability to borrow and the powers to change Wales for the better.

Community Councils are able to borrow, why is the WAG not able to unless it signs up to the discredited PFI scheme?

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Owain Vaughan says...
2:42pm Mon 19 Oct 09

What happens when the Assembly gets into billions of debt? There are only 1.8 million tax payers to bail them out, as opposed to 36 million in the UK as a whole. I don't fancy taking on that much debt. Wouldn't it more more sensible to spread it out across the whole country?

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Bobevans says...
3:54pm Mon 19 Oct 09

Clearly something needs to be done. The M4 & A48 are now gridlocked a lot of the time and we are in the depths of a recession.

The roads cannot cope. It's not an issue that can be fudged. Something has to be done and done now.

Improving Junction 28 would help a bit if nothing else it would buy some time and would make opening up the Llanwern road more sensible. The current proposals just end up putting even more traffic on to the J28 bottle neck

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Howie' says...
4:50pm Mon 19 Oct 09

It's about time trains to and from London stopped at Severn Tnl Junction and stations for local commuters are built at Magor, Llanwern, Panteg, Caerleon, Dyffryn and St Mellons. That would do a lot to ease traffic all around Newport.

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Hywel Jones says...
5:06pm Mon 19 Oct 09

devonplace, Newport wrote:
"Any M4 relief road alternatives will simply not work in a few years time. The sooner the WAG realises this the sooner we can get the M4 Relief Road built."
.
I believe that the WAG understands the situation completely. As peak oil starts to drive up fuel prices, and as measures are introduced to deal with climate change, single-person motor transport will reduce rapidly - thereby removing all the current congestion problems.
.
But we do need to press for better public transport, and to find ways to reduce the need to travel.

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Dave on his Soapbox says...
6:19pm Mon 19 Oct 09

...why as part of the temporary 50mph speed limit trial on the M4....hasn't a similar trial of the closure of the on/off slip roads to the west side of the Brynglas tunnels...as originally proposed when the Malpas Relief Road was built.

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Mervyn James says...
6:25pm Mon 19 Oct 09

The logical stance seems to simply reduce the TRAFFIC, it's only polluting us to buggery anyway, perhaps too easy for some to understand ? More roads, more traffic, in 5 year more roads/traffic again, seems a pretty pointless pastime to me.

There's plenty of road space if we take many cars out of the equation, let the M4 be for business purposes and for commercial traffic only... sorted.

Anyway if we want people to come to Newport, why build a road to bypass it ?

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Bobevans says...
7:25pm Mon 19 Oct 09

Mervyn James wrote:
The logical stance seems to simply reduce the TRAFFIC, it's only polluting us to buggery anyway, perhaps too easy for some to understand ? More roads, more traffic, in 5 year more roads/traffic again, seems a pretty pointless pastime to me. There's plenty of road space if we take many cars out of the equation, let the M4 be for business purposes and for commercial traffic only... sorted. Anyway if we want people to come to Newport, why build a road to bypass it ?
It is a major arterial road. There is no alternative to it. Public transport will not serve the types of journeys undertaken on it in any case there is no public tranport to many areas.

What bus services there are , are a disorganised and badly run chaotic mess.

The car is the only option for most commuter journies and thats not going to change.

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Mervyn James says...
7:48pm Mon 19 Oct 09

Catch 22, more cars less impetus for public transport. Something has gotta give really. We can't build ourselves out of the traffic system chaos, the only answer is less cars....

I'm afraid in the future you will HAVE to change, it won't be a choice option, nothing will be moving. They will make car ownership and running too expensive to contemplate...

The car isn't the sole option I have to disagree there, statistically most journeys are less than 8 miles and mostly local, a clear case, where public transport could address this easily, it is not necessity, it is a convenience people are unwilling to give up..

I don't buy the necessity pitch for most car owners... there are droves of car owners in Newport driving 4X4s who only commute to the nearest schools with their kids, and trips to the supermarket. You''not convince anyone these car owners would be seriously deprived if they had no cars to drive.

I know too, that you are not going to take a blind bit of notice until you are taxed back on to public transport... which will come at some point. C'mon it CANNOT be any fun at all these days to drive anywhere, you spend more time waiting than driving.

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islwyn09 says...
3:27pm Wed 21 Oct 09

Owain you'll wait forever for any Westminister administration to sort out M4!If we went independant we'd qualify for small nation status in EU we'd have more money from them to spend without getting into the kind of debt that you so rightly fear!Look @ eastern europe,they didnt have 2 groats to rub together,now they've got a burgeoning economy & vastly improved infrastructure,thanx in no small part to joining EU!For them it was a "no-brainer",why do you think so many eastern europeans have returned home?They are now much better off @ home than abroad!

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Bobevans says...
6:23pm Wed 21 Oct 09

islwyn09 wrote:
Owain you'll wait forever for any Westminister administration to sort out M4!If we went independant we'd qualify for small nation status in EU we'd have more money from them to spend without getting into the kind of debt that you so rightly fear!Look @ eastern europe,they didnt have 2 groats to rub together,now they've got a burgeoning economy & vastly improved infrastructure,thanx in no small part to joining EU!For them it was a "no-brainer",why do you think so many eastern europeans have returned home?They are now much better off @ home than abroad!
First off Wales would have to cross the palm of the EU with a large amount of gold Secondly if Wales become independent it would loose the current £8 Billion a year grant from Westminster. Wales would also pick up about 10% of the UK's debt

The EU has already indicated that subsidies for Wales are being phased out. Wales is not poor in relation to much of the rest of the Uk

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Mervyn James says...
7:34pm Wed 21 Oct 09

Britain pays the Euro, they give us some back, there's no 'free handout' as such just returning some of our money, after they take their cut. The money Westminster doles out, is also LESS than Wales is entitled to, it should come to us direct, not through Westminster where a lot is syphoned off for political expediency. Last year London kept back 1 BILLION intended from Europe to deprived Welsh areas, some, to buy land in London for the Olympics... they laughingly suggest Wales will gain from.... ANother way Wes6tminster milks it, is to offer money from the Euro we are entitled to, and then cut off what London is supposed to give to the welsh assembly, strictly against the spirit of european funding which is supposed to be in ADDITION to national incomes, and not, cut finance to Wales by the same amount.

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Bobevans says...
6:29am Thu 22 Oct 09

Mervyn James wrote:
Britain pays the Euro, they give us some back, there's no 'free handout' as such just returning some of our money, after they take their cut. The money Westminster doles out, is also LESS than Wales is entitled to, it should come to us direct, not through Westminster where a lot is syphoned off for political expediency. Last year London kept back 1 BILLION intended from Europe to deprived Welsh areas, some, to buy land in London for the Olympics... they laughingly suggest Wales will gain from.... ANother way Wes6tminster milks it, is to offer money from the Euro we are entitled to, and then cut off what London is supposed to give to the welsh assembly, strictly against the spirit of european funding which is supposed to be in ADDITION to national incomes, and not, cut finance to Wales by the same amount.
Firstly Westminster pays Wales a £* Billion to Wales which is over and above what Wales contributes. If Wales is Indepndent that £8 Billion goes. Westmnster does not hold bacck any EU money for Wales it has no powers to do so. The reason it is not paid is that Wales does not spend it. Most of the EU grnts are on a matching bases. Wales has to put up an equal amount before the funding can be used. Any unspent EU money goes back to the EU it is not absorbed by Westminter

You really have a serious lack of knowledge on the subject

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Mervyn James says...
10:48am Thu 22 Oct 09

You would like to think so...

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Stodgy says...
5:55pm Thu 22 Oct 09

I think this is getting 'off-topic' but back to the basic problem: too much traffic. More roads wont help because they encourage more car based journeys and more CO2 emission. Oil prices will rise until there is little left so it makes sense to stop encouraging road traffic before we reach a sudden crunch point on petrol supply/cost. In Wales the Assembly has a duty to promote 'sustainable development' and cancelling the new motorway (half a billion £) is a start but a previous writer is right lets have a host of new rail stations to give us commuters a realistic alternative!

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Mervyn James says...
6:15pm Thu 22 Oct 09

That is what I said, less cars, there are too many on the road, and we cannot build our way out of it. That is why I am against relief roads, since in 2 years time they will be clogged up with more inconsiderate and polluting motorists, and we will be debating this again. We need to start banning some cars NOW, before it is too late... I don't think taxing these people to buggery will make any impression cos they will starve rather than get off their car seats, so a ban is inevitable at some point. They are killing our children too with their pollutions, and overloading the NHS with their ever expanding waistlines sat down all the time.... Some of them would drive 3 miles rather than walk 200 yards.... no court in the land would find that justifiable.

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islwyn09 says...
12:10am Fri 23 Oct 09

The way our finances are dwindling year on year,your figure of £8billion will be halved by 2014(or further if tories get in)so the hard question has to be asked,can wales,scotland & ulster afford to stay within uk?As for crossong EU palm with gold,I dont recall old soviet bloc countries having much to give EU @ time of their joining!Westminster has already abandoned the Barnet Formula & you say Bob that Wales is better off than other parts of UK,oh yeah?You dont see SE England & Home Counties shaking tins to build children's hospitals do you?No they are looked after very nicely thank you very much!Time to take the Union Jack blinkers off gentlemen & realise we are being marginalised again,this time financially!

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Mervyn James says...
9:58am Sat 24 Oct 09

Wales has always been marginalised by Westminster. We cannot move whilst MP's are still in Wales with alternative views to AM's. AM's want a wales first approach, MP's want to feather their nests in London, and visit us when they want a vote...MP's have go to go.... confused representation is no use to all.

People like Hain I want out of Wales, he has no interest in serving Wales at all... he is too close to London, and sees his future there.

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