Meole Brace roundabout 'barely fit for purpose' and will 'break' under increased traffic, says transport manager
Meole Brace roundabout is on the brink of breaking if plans to run a road through it aren't carried out, an expert from Shropshire Council has claimed.
During a presentation to Shrewsbury Town Council, Shropshire Council's strategic transport and contracts manager Matt Johnson warned that the remodelling of the roundabout was not to solve current issues, but to prevent further problems from arising from new housing and businesses in the area.
He said: "At this point in time this junction as it sits without the adaptations is barely fit for purpose at peak hour and it's running at 100 per cent capacity in terms of the technical side.
"If you imagine the increase in traffic from the increased housing and employment land, the roundabout is going to creak and break the minute that it goes live in terms of mass occupancy.
"The idea is to take the development gain, which is the money we get from developers, and mitigate the impact of their new housing and employment sites.
"This is not about rectifying an issue that is happening today."
"It's about future proofing that whole roundabout and junction scenario. If we weren't to do it now, it will fall over at a time when we didn't have funding available," he said.
"Some of the misunderstanding about this has come from the roundabout not currently being broken. It isn't currently broken – but it's about to be."
Mr Johnson claimed that two thirds of the trees on the roundabout will be protected when the work is done.
He said: "At this point in time, we've managed to go through most of the stone features in terms of the alignment of the roads.
"You've got the existing protected areas of trees, and one thing that will add value is there's also going to be cycling and pedestrian access through. We can create areas that people can enjoy inside the roundabout for the first time.
"The other thing here is a drainage pod, but it's going to be a water feature. There's the opportunity to make that into more of an attractive feature.
"In terms of the tree works, approximately two thirds will be protected but, after being up close and personal with the trees recently some of them are in a pretty poor state. They look great from 40 yards, but when you get close to them they're not a healthy plantation.
"The other thing that will be happening is the council has a policy of two for one on tree replacement.
"Any tree you might lose will be reinstated within the town elsewhere two for one."
