£3.8 million work package for danger road in Shropshire

A 20km stretch of the A529 between Hinstock and Audlem was identified by the Road Safety Foundation as one of the 50 worst roads in the country for accidents and lack of safety measures, and Shropshire Council has been awarded millions to install countermeasures.

The council's successful application to the Department for Transport said that on the stretch of road between January 2012 and July 2017, there were five fatalities as well as 12 serious crashes and 60 slight collisions, resulting in 16 serious injuries and 98 slight injuries.

Consultation in nearby communities is still ongoing to determine what the ideal measures will be, and survey teams have been gathering data from the road.

Steve Davenport, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “The A529 Safer Roads Fund consultation event held at Shirehall in January was very successful with plenty of useful feedback provided to us by the local Shropshire, parish and town councillors that attended.

"We will be engaging further with local communities in Hinstock and Market Drayton during March by presenting the proposals at parish council meetings.

“Survey teams have been busy on site since last month undertaking topographical surveys to establish accurate mapping in order for us to begin preparing designs.

"We also have traffic counters out in a number of locations along the A529 to establish baseline traffic data before work commences in order to measure before/after data.

“We’ve also been looking at areas of maintenance that can be incorporated and delivered within our works, and have held ‘early contractor involvement’ meetings to ensure our contractor is on board and ready to deliver as per the programme.”

The work is scheduled to take three years, after which the council will continue to monitor its effectiveness.