£6m plans for Shrewsbury's A5 bypass

Major £6 million enhancements could be made to junctions along Shrewsbury's A5 bypass in a bid to cope with its sprawling population which is expected to increase over the next 15 years.

Highways chiefs today said they are working on major plans which could see new intelligent traffic signals and bigger roundabouts installed along the six junctions off the bypass.

Shrewsbury has been identified by the government as a "growth point" area, with thousands of new homes due to be built between now and 2026.

But highways bosses say the town's current transport infrastructure will simply not be able to cope with the extra people and traffic that will be generated and are looking at ways they can improve it.

Martin Withington, head of transportation for Shropshire Council, today said the authority had completed a study with the Highways Agency, which is responsible for the A5, to see what work could be realistically carried out.

He said: "It's quite a broad brush technical exercise we did. We looked at levels of housing and employment sector growth in the Local Development Framework and converted that into extra transport movements and looked at the impact on the A5 bypass. Some of the really big solutions such as grade separated junctions could involve the building of bridges and could cost tens of millions of pounds."

Mr Withington said the cost of improving each junction by using an at-grade system would be in the region of £500,000 to £1 million each.

He said: "For this solution we are looking at things like putting in extra signals and increasing the size of roundabouts or a combination of both."

Mr Withington said the council was also investigating whether to make Chester Street in the town centre two-way in a bid to ease congestion. This would mean people travelling along Ellesmere Road towards Smithfield Road would no longer have to go under the railway bridge.

By Russell Roberts