New relief road 'will put Shrewsbury on the map'
With just over two years to go until construction is due to start on the North West Relief Road, the plans are steaming ahead.
The schedule to get the long-awaited link road open to traffic by autumn 2023 is tight, but Shropshire Council is confident the deadline is achievable.
Councillors and officers took a tour of the route on Wednesday afternoon and were shown exactly where the highway, bridges, cycleways and footpaths will be laid.
There are still a number of major hurdles to overcome, like gaining full planning permission and awarding the contract to build the road, but the authority is optimistic.
And despite concerns raised from a number of environmental groups, the council assures that the road will in fact make Shrewsbury a more environmentally friendly place to live and work, as well as bringing a whole host of other benefits along with it.
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The main aim of the new road, according to the council's strategic transport and contracts manager Matt Johnson, is to take traffic out of the already congested town centre and redirect it to the north of Shrewsbury.
The first section will start at Churncote Roundabout and join up with the Holyhead Road roundabout, cutting behind the Oxon Park & Ride and skirting past the Oxon Touring Park and The Uplands nursing and care home.
Mr Johnson said it is an extremely important phase of the project as it is also a chance to improve the economy of this area of Shrewsbury.
He said: "This part of the North West Relief Road will put this area on the map as it acts as a stopping point. At the moment people just drive past on the bypass and don't think about what is around."
Councillor Peter Nutting, leader of the authority, added: "All of this land around the road will suddenly become development land. Yes, some of it will be for housing but there will be an opportunity for all sorts of commercial uses. It's a chance to unlock this area and create jobs for local people."
He also said the council has been working closely with Salop Leisure, which owns Oxon Touring Park, to resolve any outstanding issues after the managing director Edward Goddard raised fears that building a link road so close to the park would be a serious threat to the business.
It is believed the road will also decongest The Mount, Frankwell area of Shrewsbury and Smithfield Road.
"Traffic that would usually use this route maybe looking to get to Whitchurch and further afield can use the North West Relief Road when it's built," Mr Johnson said.
"This through traffic adds very little to the town economy as it is just passing through without stopping.
"There is quite regularly stationary traffic on Smithfield Road and it is a huge issue for the town. The relief road will take a huge percentage of it away.
"The benefits will be felt very strongly in areas such as this."
Cameras equipped with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) equipment were set up in the town centre to monitor cars entering and leaving Shrewsbury.
Economy
It meant the council could track drivers' journey through town and showed a large proportion of people who travelled into town left within 10 minutes.
Mr Johnson said: "This suggests they weren't shopping or working, and therefore not adding anything to the economy. When the new road is built that through traffic will be gone and we will be left with just the traffic that does want and need to be in the town."
The next section of the road will take motorists between Holyhead Road roundabout and Berwick Road roundabout.
It is set to be one of the biggest challenges in construction as it includes the building of a viaduct to take drivers over the River Severn.
The route then continues over the Shrewsbury to Chester railway line, where a second new bridge will be built, and finally on to the Ellesmere Road roundabout where the link road stops.
Over at this end of the town, the road will provide better access to the businesses in Battlefield while also establishing a better link to the hospital for residents.
A six-week pre-planning public and stakeholder consultation is set to launch in January.
