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A500 basford hough shavington bypass

A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass

A500 Opening of Basford Hough Shavington Bypass

This month sees the opening of the A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass. About 80% of all traffic, including a large proportion of heavy goods vehicles, will be taken off the existing A500 bringing improved road safety for residents and users. The scheme complements local, regional and national planning policies by creating opportunities for new employment areas north of the bypass alongside the West Coast Main Line railway.

Challenges Overcome

In the summer of 2001, work began to construct the dual carriageway between Meremoor Moss and Cheerbrook roundabout thereby easing congestion through the villages of Basford, Hough and Shavington.

Just over 22 months later and despite the start date being delayed several months due to the national Foot and Mouth outbreak, the road is now ready to open to motorists, some 4 months ahead of the planned completion date.

Major achievements during the building of the bypass include:

• the construction and launching into place of a 200m long bridge over the railway.
• moving 700,000 cubic metres of earth.
• environmental works involving the creation of 12 newt ponds, a badger sett and planting 19,500 trees.
• the construction of 4 new bridges across the bypass, 2 new farm accommodation bridges, a new combined footway/cycleway bridge and 9 new culverts.
• the full re-construction of Rope Lane in front of Shavington High School.

Crossing the West Coast Mainline

One of the major engineering achievements on the scheme was the successful completion of the London Crewe Railway Bridge. The bridge was constructed away from the railway line and launched across the tracks on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The launch itself could only be undertaken during a 48 hour rail possession over Christmas 2001.

Included in the scheme, has been the construction of 3 overbridges to carry the three main side roads (Rope Lane, Crewe Road and Main Road) over the new bypass.

The bridges were built alongside the existing roads without the need for traffic management and once they were completed traffic was diverted onto the new bridges with minimum disruption.

Looking after the Landscape and its Occupants

The new bypass will have a variety of effects on the landscape along its route. Some vegetation has been lost, new structures introduced and some parts of the route are in cutting and others on embankment. All of these have had aneffect on the environment. A variety of landscape treatments have been adopted to blend the bypass into its surroundings.

These consist of:

• thousands of new trees and shrubs planted as hedgerows, dense woodland areas, or more open treatments such as intermittent groups of trees.
• open grass areas including many areas with wild flowers.
• in some locations earth mounds have been formed beside the bypass to provide immediate screening for relevant views of the route - generally these have been planted to soften their appearance and integrate their shapes with their surroundings.

There were a number of ecological challenges encountered in the construction of the bypass :

• many of the ponds in the area were shown to contain great crested newts. Before any construction could be undertaken a programme of trapping and translocation to new areas had to be undertaken under licence from DEFRA.
• some of the existing ponds were lost and therefore new ponds were constructed to compensate for this. There is actually a net increase in the number of ponds and associated great crested newt habitat as a result of the scheme.
• Protected white clawed crayfish and water voles were found in Basford Brook. The crossing of the brook necessitated trapping and relocating them to new habitats away from the construction work.
• badgers are present in the area and a new badger sett has been constructed to compensate for the effects of the new road. In addition, badger proof fencing and wildlife tunnels under the road have been provided.

Location Map of Bypass

Select any part of map to access larger diagram

This map is reproduced from Ordnance Survey material by the Highways Agency Traffic and Operations Division with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, © Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings.
Licence number 100018928.

Community and Communications

Considerate Constructors

The A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass site has received a Gold 2003 National Award from the Considerate Constructors Scheme.

The award was presented to Kevin Lucas - Project Manager, Mowlem in April at an award ceremony at Crewe Hall.

The award is in recognition of running a scheme that demonstrates that the Highways Agency and it's contractors put environmental sensitivity and public health and safety at the top of our agenda.

Community Relations

Liaison with the public started with a 2 day public exhibition held in the local village hall where key members of staff were present to answer questions and talk to people about concerns they may have had.

Regular meetings with the Headmaster at Shavington High School have taken place and a safety talk was given to all the pupils before construction work in that area started. Talks on site safety have also been given to several local scouts groups. The youngsters were shown a video outlining the dangers of playing on a construction site and given a talk on the safety aspects and construction of a major project like the A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass.

Several site visits have taken place. County, Borough and Parish Councillors visited the site and were given the opportunity to see at first hand how the project was being managed within the local community.

Regular newsletters have been distributed locally to keep people up to date with progress, forthcoming activities, environmental matters, people involved in the scheme and any other general news.

Facts and Figures

Start date	2nd April 2001
Entry onto site	Mid June 2001
Contractual completion date	End of September 2003
Length of scheme	7.5 kilometres
Scheme cost	£28 million
Standard	Dual 2 lane all purpose carriageway
Fencing	19 kilometres
Excavation	700,000 cubic metres
Drainage pipeline	29 kilometres
Stone	140,000 tonnes
Blacktop	122,000 tonnes
Concrete	7,700 cubic
Bridges	8
New ponds	12
Badger setts	1
Mammal tunnels	7
Trees planted	19,500

Recent Activities

Recent Activities

Christmas day for us started at one minute past midnight when the bridge over the London - Crewe Railway started to move. In spite of torrential rain and howling winds, the Southern most span was in position by 6:30am. By dawn, the rain had blown itself out and blue sky and sunshine greeted our dayshift as we commenced preparation for launching the second half. A good number of local residents and staff members and their families turned up to watch and we extend our thanks to them for their support and their exemplary behaviour. The Northern span was finally in place by 3:00am on Boxing Day after a small hitch about two thirds of the way across. A significant achievement, congratulations to all involved.

The other area of main activity has been at Cheerbrook Roundabout where the roundabout is nearing completion and traffic is running around it. Use was made of the new Newcastle Road link whilst the roundabout was constructed.

Rope Lane is progressing well. We apologise for the great inconvenience caused to local Road users whilst this very complicated section of the work is undertaken and we ask you to bear with us for a few more weeks. Rope Lane Bridge was cast on 8th May.

On 27th March, Crewe Road Bridge Deck was cast using 805m3 of concrete, this has now gained its strength and the temporary support will shortly be dismantled and moved to Carters Green Farm Bridge.

Forthcoming Activities

We will soon complete Newcastle Road Diversion at the West End of the schemeand traffic will be transferred from the old road near the Horseshoe Pub. Whilst this is ongoing we again as for your forbearance.

Work continues on the side road crossings at Rope Lane, Crewe Road and Main Road, Weston, and we expect to have these nearing completion towards the end of the summer. Now that we have the bridge over the West Coast Main Line we can use it to move material from the East side to form embankments on the West side and start to shape the bypass along its full length. Given a favourable summer we expect to open the bypass several months early by spring 2003. We will shortly be starting work at the East End of the scheme at the A5020/A500 roundabout at Meremoor Moss. We have to enlarge the roundabout to allow for the connection of the bypass and some disruption to traffic will be inevitable. Please allow more time for your journey and drive safely through the roadwork's.

Environmental Matters

Our ecologists have been working hard to minimise the effects on wildlife throughout the site. You may have noticed the long lengths of polythene fencing at our site boundaries, which we use to trap and exclude Great Crested Newts, an important protected species. We have a licence to do this work from English Nature and we do not start full construction until the site is clear. We have created a number of new ponds near the bypass for the Newts and these should become havens for local wildlife. We have also successfully relocated a Badger sett from the line of the road and we are pleased to see that the Badger family is already extending their new home.

Customer Care

We would like to thank residents and commuters using the A51 during the weekend of 23rd and 24th March at Cheerbrook Roundabout, for their patience whilst major works were going on. We would also like to say a big thank you to residents of Crewe Road, Shavington, who again, were patient with us whilst we did a large concrete pour on the Crewe Road Bridge, opposite our site compound on 27th March. We apologise for any disruptions and inconvenience caused to local residents and people using Crewe Road during this time.

The Organisations Involved in A500 Project

Last Issue: John Mowlem & Co PLC
This Issue: The Babtie Group (Design Consultant)

The Babtie Group, founded in 1895, is one of the UK's leading technical and management consultancies with offices throughout the UK as well as Europe and the Far East. Babtie has worked successfully with the Highways Agency and its predecessors for many years, establishing it's strong reputation by providing engineering excellence, together with innovation on over 20 Design & Build or DBFO (Design, Build, Fund, Operate) projects. Many projects, like the A500, demand close liaison with local residents and the public in general, an appreciation that Babtie has demonstrated through numerous public inquiries, public exhibitions etc.

The multi disciplinary nature of the company enables Babtie to provide expertise on a wide range of environmental issues such as noise, landscaping, ecology, archaeology, air quality and lighting. The A500 project has been able to benefit from these skills that are seen as essential to the successful delivery of major highway schemes. This has been amply demonstrated, for instance, by the company's approach to the diverse wildlife found on the site. Babtie's team on site is there to help Mowlem and to ensure that there is good communication between the designers and the builders.

Safety

WHO IS MOLE-M?

Mole-M was devised with the intention of educating young children about the dangers associated with construction sites in a way which is entertaining and therefore easy for them to relate to.

Mole-M (a play on the John Mowlem & Company name) is a large furry mole who dresses in builder's attire and carries a shovel! He visits schools along with two human 'helpers' who introduce him and show pupils an interactive power-point presentation and a short video, both of which help highlight the dangers that can exist on construction sites.

For teachers wishing for Mole-M to visit their school please call the number below and we will arrange a day and time that is suitable for you and take a note of any specific needs you might have.

Sports News

Mowlem have recently challenged various local companies, some associated to the A500 project and some not, to a series of 5 A Side football games. Currently Mowlem are topping the league, having won the majority of games so far this season. If anyone would like to challenge Mowlem to a game of 5 A Side, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Mr Roger Powell on the telephone number overleaf.

Recent Activities

Recent Activities

The Newcastle Link road, which ties into the existing A500, is now complete and open to traffic. However, landscaping and other minor works to allow access into adjacent farmland require completion. A Thirty Three Thousand volt cable passing underneath the line of the new main carriageway will be lowered this week. Similarly, BT will make connections to their new cables in Wybunbury Road. The old sections of the A500 and Wybunbury Road will then be removed allowing construction to continue with a clear run through to Rope Lane.

Crewe Road, Main Road and Rope Lane overbridges have all been constructed and soon will be carrying traffic over them, allowing new carriageway construction to continue underneath. Carters Green Farm and Mill Lane are also complete with Rope Farm Bridge scheduled for completion on 10th July, leaving Wybunbury Road cycle/footbridge the only structure to be completed. The majority of culverts and wildlife passes are also nearing completion.

The Western approach embankment to the Rail Bridge is under construction and this involves a fleet of articulated dump trucks moving earth from near Meremoor Moss, over the bridge.

Forthcoming Activities

There will be a series of overnight road closures of the A5020 commencing on Monday night 8th July 2002, to facilitate construction of the Meremoor Moss roundabout. Whilst this may cause some of the travelling public to use slightly longer diversioning routes, it should prevent the normal peak hour chaos from getting any worse. We trust you will all bear with us whilst we undertake this important section which ties the new road into the existing.

Environmental Matters

The translocation of protected species from the working areas of the project has been virtually completed. A running total of about 150 Great Crested Newts have been trapped and moved. The replacement habitats areas, including ponds that have been created, are flourishing now that the growing season is well under way and they are starting to look as though they have always been there. As progress with the actual surfacing of the road continues, wildlife passes or tunnels are being installed at appropriate locations to allow safe passage across the road for badgers etc. An unexpected visitor to the project has been the sand martin that has been looking to colonise the exposed faces of the sandy sub-soil uncovered temporarily by the earthworks. Bird scarers have been deployed, as well as sheeting, over areas at risk before works have been completed.

Customer Care

Whilst every care is taken to ensure that local residents from the Villages effected by the ongoing work are not unduly disturbed, there are inevitably times when sadly this cannot be achieved. Should anyone have any concerns, please feel free to call our site office and talk to a member of staff, who will endeavour to find an amicable solution to your problem. The address and phone number can be found on the back page of this Newsletter.

Organisations Involved in A500 Project

Last Issue: The Babtie Group (Design Consultant)
This Issue: Veryards (The Employers Agent)

VERYARDS Ltd was founded in 1959 as an independent professional partnership of civil and structural engineers. The firm quickly established a reputation for innovative and cost effective designs associated with commissions for national and local government departments, health authorities and private sector clients. In more recent times Veryards has been involved in design and build projects acting either as Employer's Agent or Contractor's Designer.

In 1988 the predecessor to the Highways Agency appointed the company to investigate alternative routes for a bypass of Basford, Hough and Shavington which forms part of a more general upgrading of the A51(T) strategic route between North Wales and Chester to the Midlands and beyond. Veryards, under the direction of the Highways Agency, has been responsible for dealing with all the normal statutory procedures including public consultation, preparation of the mainline and side roads Orders, public inquiry andcompulsory land purchase issues. Tender documents were prepared in accordance with the Department of Transport's Design and Construct form of procurement. Specialist sub-consultants have been employed to deal with environmental, ecological and street lighting matters.

During the construction phase of the project Veryards has responsibility for ensuring the requirements of the Highways Agency are fully met. They monitor the activities of the contractor and their designers and participate in meetings with interested parties. Communications with the local community affected by the scheme also plays an important part of their work.

Safety

The Considerate Constructors Scheme is a voluntary Code of Practice, driven by the Industry, which seeks to:

• Minimise any disturbance or negative impact (in terms of noise, dirt and inconvenience) sometimes caused by construction sites to the immediate neighbourhood.
• Eradicate offensive behaviour and language from sites.
• Recognise and reward the contractors commitment to raise standards of site management, safety and environmental awareness beyond statutory duties.

John Mowlem & Company PLC are registered with the Considerate Constructor Scheme and upon a recent site inspection at the A500 Basford Hough Shavington Bypass project, we are proud to have scored a total 39½ out of 40. We feel that participating in the scheme demonstrates that we put environmental sensitivity and public health and safety at the top of our agenda.

Considerate Construction provides high standards of site cleanliness and tidiness, better site housekeeping and traffic management, less dust and noise, environmental friendliness and greater community involvement, which results in improved understanding and respect from residents and others in the community, and fewer complaints. A clean tidy, organised and well managed construction project is also safer for both those operating around it and those working on site who enjoy better working conditions and are as a result a more productive workforce. Being a Considerate Constructor is consequently a 'win win' situation for all those involved.

Considerate Constructors Code of Practice

Considerate - Environment - Cleanliness - Good Neighbours - Respectful - Safe - Responsible - Accountable

Should you have any queries or concerns please contact:
Gaynor Mellor, A500 Project Office, Crewe Road, Shavington, Crewe, Cheshire CW2 5AH Tel: 01270 666195

Sports News

Mowlem have agreed to sponsor a youth league from the Crewe Alex Soccer Academy for the forthcoming season.

Currently the Mowlem 5 a side team remain unbeaten and would welcome challenges from local business's/teams.

If anyone would like to challenge Mowlem to a game of 5 a side please contact Kevin Lucas, Project Manager on the number overleaf.

Executive summary

Executive Summary

The A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington Bypass officially opened on Thursday 22nd May 2003, providing relief from traffic for the villages of Shavington and Hough in Cheshire. The scheme consists of an approximately 7.5 km long new section of dual carriageway road accessed from roundabouts at either end. There is an intermediate access on Crewe Road just north of Shavington village, and another (the easternmost access, as shown on the map) due to open in the future near to Mill Lane just north of Weston.

The layout of the scheme is shown in Figure 1.

The objectives of the scheme were defined in the Scheme Appraisal Summary Table (AST) and can be summarised as follows:

• To reduce traffic flow through the villages of Hough and Shavington by up to 75%;
• To reduce the accident rate on the existing road by the removal of through traffic; and
• To improve local air quality by taking traffic out of the villages.

In order to assess whether these objectives have been achieved, traffic flow and journey time data for the bypassed section of the original A500 were collected immediately prior to and after scheme opening and 'after' data for the bypass itself was also collected in order to monitor the effects of the new scheme.

In addition, traffic data from existing Highways Agency permanent count sites and from Cheshire County Council temporary sites was obtained in order to evaluate the effects of the opening of the A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington Bypass on strategic traffic routing patterns in the area.

A comparison of the 'Before' and 'After' traffic volumes is shown in Figure 0.2.

In the weeks following opening, the three main traffic effects of the bypass were:

• The new road was used by 14,600 vehicles per average weekday at the western end and 16,800 vehicles per day (vpd) at the eastern end;
• The scheme was successful in its primary aim of reducing traffic levels through Shavington and Hough in that the number of vehicles using the main road through the villages has reduced from 15,900 to 5,500 vehicles, a reduction of over 60%;
• The bypass provides time savings of up to 4 minutes from Nantwich to the M6, and journey times on the old A500 have also decreased by up to 2 minutes as a significant level of traffic has re-routed on to the bypass.

1. introduction

1. Introduction

1. This report provides the results of a Before and After monitoring exercise carried out to evaluate the effects of the recently opened A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington, Bypass.
2. The A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington Bypass was officially opened on Thursday 22nd May 2003. It is a dual carriageway road with a junction on Crewe Road just north of Shavington village. A second junction further east is open, but a link road to it is planned for 2005, which will serve new developments in and around Weston.
3. Other local schemes being built are a link road from the south side of the Nantwich bypass onto the Newcastle Road which links directly to the west end of the new bypass, and the Crewe Green link road. This latter scheme is to be built in two stages. Stage 1 of the scheme is from the A5020 near Crewe Hall to the junction of the A534, A532 & B5077 and is due to open in the near future. Stage 2 links with the new A500 scheme (estimated completion 2010).
4. 'Before' and 'After' traffic data for the corridor was collected immediately prior to and after the opening date in order to prepare a Traffic Impact Study (TIS) on the effects of the scheme opening. In addition, traffic flow data from Highways Agency and Cheshire County Council count sites has also been used to evaluate the effects of the opening of the Bypass on strategic traffic routing patterns in the area.
5. Section 2 of this report discusses the data collected as part of the TIS study. Sections 3 and 4 summarise the main results and conclusions.

2. data collected

2. Data Collected

A500 BASFORD, HOUGH, SHAVINGTON BYPASS

1. This Traffic Impact Study (TIS) for the Bypass involved consideration of data collected from the following sources:
   • Four existing Highways Agency Automatic Traffic Count (ATC) sites;
   • One new Highways Agency ATC site;
   • Five temporary Cheshire County Council ATC sites;
   • Four existing Cheshire County Council ATC sites;
   • Two Atkins commissioned ATC sites; and
   • 'Before' and 'After' Journey Time surveys.
2. Details of the surveys are below.

AUTOMATIC TRAFFIC COUNTS

3. Traffic data has been taken from three sources:
   • Cheshire County Council sites;
   • Permanent Highways Agency count sites; and
   • Surveys commissioned by Atkins.
4. This data has enabled Atkins to monitor the effects of the scheme opening on other routes in Cheshire and assess the strategic impact of the new bypass.
5. Cheshire County Council Sites:
   • Existing A500 (two sites);
   • A534 Crewe Road (two sites);
   • B5071 Crewe Road (two sites);
   • A5020 Weston Road;
   • C521Rope Lane; and
   • C841Newcastle Road.
6. Highways Agency Sites:
   • A500 - one site on the bypassed section and one to the east of the new scheme;
   • M6 north and south of junction 16; and
   • Two new sites on the A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington Bypass (after data only).
7. Atkins also commissioned two automatic traffic count (ATC) surveys in May and June 2003. Data was collected at:
   • Old A500 (C841) between Shavington and Hough villages; and
   • Old A500 (A531) near Weston.
8. The scheme itself opened on Thursday 22nd May 2003. The count equipment was connected on 7th May and continued until late June to incorporate the scheme opening day and the weeks before and after opening. It was decided that this longer than usual data collection period would enable the unusual traffic flows on May bank holidays and during the schools' half term break to be discounted.
9. There are now two permanently monitored count sites on the new road but due to technical issues one of the sites was only connected on 9th June, over two weeks after opening, and the other (easternmost) counter not until late July.
10. Some roads in the vicinity were not included in the survey specification, as it was not feasible to survey every road. A judgement as to which roads were to be included in the survey was taken by Atkins, in consultation with local knowledge provided by Cheshire County Council.
11. The locations of all of these ATC sites are shown in Figure 2.1.

JOURNEY TIME SURVEYS

12. Journey time surveys were undertaken for morning (7:00am - 9:00am) and evening (4:30pm - 6:30pm) peaks as well as the inter-peak period (9:00am - 2:00pm).
13. 'Before' surveys were undertaken in mid May 2003, and the 'After' surveys were carried out post-opening of the scheme in June 2003.
14. Journey time surveys were commissioned on 3 existing routes plus the new road as follows:
    1. Blue Route - Old A500 existing road through Shavington and Hough from east end of new bypass (A500/A5020 roundabout) to roundabout of A534 with A500;
    2. Red Route - Existing A5020 / A534 route through Crewe - same start & end points as (i);
    3. Brown Route - B5071 Crewe (roundabout by railway station) to Shavington (junction with old A500); and
    4. Green Route - New route A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington Bypass, same start & end points as route (i).
15. These routes are shown in Figure 2.2 below.

3. summary of results

3. Summary of Results

AUTOMATIC TRAFFIC COUNTS (ATC)

1. Figure 3.1 provides a summary of the 'Before' and 'After' ATC information using five day 24 hour average two-way traffic volumes.

2. The main points to note following scheme opening are:
   • In May 2003, around 14,600 vehicles were recorded using the western end of the new road on an average weekday, with nearly 17,000 vehicles at the eastern end; and
   • Following opening, traffic volumes of 5,500 per day were observed on the old trunk road between Shavington and Hough, compared with 15,900 vehicles before opening. This represents a reduction of some 10,400 vehicles (65%) passing through the two villages.

   At other locations on the old A500 the pattern is similar:

   • In Shavington itself there is a 64% reduction in traffic;
   • Further east near Weston, the A500 is carrying 63% less traffic than before the opening of the bypass; and
   • Traffic levels on the section of the A500 which forms the Nantwich ring road appear unchanged.
3. 'Before' and 'After' traffic counts have also been undertaken on parallel roads to the A500 in order to understand re-routing of traffic in the area. The main points to note from these count sites are:
   • There has been a very small decrease in traffic passing through Crewe in the east - west direction. This can be seen from the decrease in vehicles per day (vpd) passing the site near Crewe rail station, from 28,800 vpd to 28,100 vpd, a change of approximately 2%;
   • Before and after traffic counts were undertaken on two of Nantwich's radial routes - the A534 Crewe Road, and Newcastle Road. Traffic on the Nantwich section of the A534 is unchanged. However, there has been a considerable increase in traffic on the Newcastle Road, which leads from the centre of Nantwich and the new A5301 link road to the west end of the new road where traffic volumes increased by nearly 19% from 11,000 vpd;
   • The traffic counts on the minor roads which cross the new bypass also showed some changes. Rope Lane (the westernmost of the two minor roads) showed a decrease in traffic of 900 vpd (17%). Crewe Road, further east, had two count locations, one north and one south of the intermediate access to the bypass. South of the bypass there was a small decrease in traffic, from 8600 vpd to 8400 vpd, which is only a difference of 2%. North of the bypass there was an increase of 600 vpd, which is about 7%; and
   • Junction 16 is the nearest junction of the M6. Just north of this junction there is a 1.5% increase in traffic (from 126,300 vpd to 128,200 vpd) after the new A500 scheme opened.

JOURNEY TIMES

4. A summary of the journey times from the 'Before' scheme opening and 'After scheme opening is shown in Tables 3.1 to 3.4.

Table 3.1 - Journey Times for New Route

Direction	Period	Route Used		Time saved using new A500	Old A500 (After)	Time Saved using old A500
		Old A500	New A500
		(Before)	(After)
Eastbound	AM	10:29	08:10	02:19	09:08	01:21
	INTER	10:31	06:43	03:48	08:51	02:40
	PM	10:50	07:05	03:45	09:45	01:05
Westbound	AM	10:17	06:42	03:35	09:33	00:44
	INTER	10:49	06:37	04:12	10:10	00:39
	PM	10:39	06:57	03:42	08:45	01:54

Table 3.2 - Journey Times for Northern Route

Direction	Period	Route Used		Time Saved using existing A5020/A534
		A5020/A534 (Before)	A5020/A534 (After)
Eastbound	AM	26:16	13:49	12:27
	INTER	14:17	14:03	0:14
	PM	20:40	23:10	-2:30
Westbound	AM	17:04	15:27	1:37
	INTER	13:37	13:15	0:22
	PM	26:22	18:21	8:01

Table 3.3 - Journey Times for Southern Route

Direction	Period	Route Used		Time Saved using existing A500
		Old A500 (Before)	Old A500 (After)
Eastbound	AM	10:29	09:08	1:21
	INTER	10:31	08:51	1:40
	PM	10:50	09:45	1:05
Westbound	AM	10:17	09:33	0:44
	INTER	10:49	10:10	0:39
	PM	10:39	08:45	1:54

Table 3.4 - Journey Times for Cross Route

Direction	Period	Route Used		Time Saved using Crewe Rd
		Crewe Rd (Before)	Crewe Rd (After)
Northbound	AM	08:07	08:06	0:01
	INTER	07:30	07:44	-0:14
	PM	10:45	07:02	3:43
Southbound	AM	05:53	06:49	-0:56
	INTER	08:06	06:09	1:57
	PM	06:38	07:21	-0:43

5. The first table clearly shows that significant time savings are being observed in the A500 corridor, in both directions through Shavington and Hough over the length of the new bypass, (ie. between the roundabouts at either extent of the scheme). These savings are as high as 4 minutes in the westbound direction, which shows a 40% time saving compared to the 'Before' scheme scenario. Savings vary from 6 to 18% of the original journey time.
6. The reduction in traffic volumes on the old A500 means that the existing traffic travels quicker and journey times of two minutes are shown for vehicles that remain on the old A500.
7. The northern route, through Crewe itself, shows a time saving of up to 12 minutes eastbound in the morning peak and 8 minutes westbound in the evening peak. However, in the same direction in the evening peak there is actually an increased journey time of 3 minutes, from 20 minutes to 23 minutes. The largest time savings are eastbound in the morning peak and westbound in the evening peak.
8. On further investigation, the journey time savings eastbound in the morning peak and westbound in the evening peak are almost entirely on the section of the route east of Crewe itself. There is actually an increase in journey time through the town section eastbound in the morning peak but this is hidden by the larger decrease in journey time on the easternmost section. The location of the reduction is in agreement with the very modest decrease in traffic at the ATC site near Crewe station - such a small decrease in traffic would not be expected to cause a large improvement in journey time. It does imply that the A5020 near Weston has seen a considerable decrease in traffic in this period.
9. The B5071 route which crosses the new bypass shows journey time savings of nearly 4 minutes northbound in the PM peak (35% of original journey time) and 2 minutes southbound in the inter peak period (24% of original journey time). The other times and directions show a marginal effect.
10. Overall both the old and new A500 roads have journey time savings under the new scheme. However it can be seen that the route through Crewe and the north / south route which crosses the new road both have time savings for some times / directions and not for others. This can be seen more clearly in Figure 3.2 below.

JOURNEY SPEEDS

Table 3.5 - Comparison of Journey Speeds (KPH)

Direction	Period	Before	After
		A500 Av. Speed (kph)	Old A500 Av. Speed (kph)	New A500 Av. Speed (kph)
Eastbound	AM	51	59	67
	INTER	51	60	68
	PM	50	55	65
Westbound	AM	52	56	55
	INTER	50	53	70
	PM	50	61	64

11. Table 3.5 compares journey speeds before and after the Bypass opening during AM, Inter-peak, and PM peak periods. Average speeds on the old A500 have increased by around 10kph from 50 to 60kph. These increases in speed clearly reflect the removal of traffic from this route after the opening of the new bypass. The new A500 shows eastbound journey speeds are consistently 65-70 kph but westbound AM peak shows only 55kph, suggesting perhaps some junction delay at the western end of the bypass.
12. The scheme clearly allows traffic to flow more freely during these periods. The average traffic speed on the new A500 is 16 kph faster than the old A500 travelling Eastbound, and 12 kph faster travelling Westbound before the scheme opened.
13. Table 3.6 below shows the variation in journey times on the B5071 from the shortest observed time and the longest observed time, suggesting that the scheme has been successful in reducing variation in journey times so that journey times are more reliable.

Table 3.6 - Variation in Journey Times on Cross Route

Direction	Period	Before	After
Northbound	AM	21%	9%
	INTER	27%	9%
	PM	81%	13%
Southbound	AM	22%	20%
	INTER	24%	10%
	PM	33%	20%

Despite the wide variation, the opening of the new route appears not to have had a detrimental effect on the B5071 between Shavington village and Crewe.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

TRAFFIC COUNTS

14. The main points to note from the results of the traffic counts are:
    • In the month of June a weekday average of 14,600 vpd used the new bypass. Approximately 10,400 vehicles previously used the former A500 through the bypassed villages, meaning that just over 70% of the traffic on the new bypass has been successfully removed from the road through Shavington and Hough. It is possible that there are some new trips within this traffic, but it appears that the remainder of the traffic on the new bypass has diverted from other routes such as that through Crewe town centre (900 vehicles), Rope Lane through Nantwich (900 vehicles) and some (2,400 vehicles) from other corridors. This traffic from other corridors can be seen in the extra traffic on the A500 between the new scheme and the M6 and on Newcastle Road to the west of the scheme.
    • There has been a consistent percentage reduction of vehicles (65%) along the whole length of the A500.
    • The small decrease (from 28,800 vpd to 28,100 vpd, a 2% reduction) in traffic passing through Crewe in the east - west direction can not be considered as a direct effect of the new scheme. This traffic's flow variation may be within the normal variation of traffic flows over two time periods.
    • There has been a considerable increase in traffic on Newcastle Road, which leads from the centre of Nantwich to the west end of the new road. This increase is about 30%, or 3,100 vehicles. These vehicles have diverted on to the new road from other corridors accessing the bypass through the eastern side of Nantwich.
    • These results can be explained by the opening of a new link road from the south end of the Nantwich bypass to the Newcastle Road. This road is used to link traffic from Nantwich itself and the west and south of the town to the new bypass.
    • The effect of Phase 2 of the Crewe Green Link Road, which is not yet open, will be examined in the 5 Year after report on this scheme. This road is planned to serve developments in and around Weston, and may carry considerable volumes of traffic.
    • For the period 9th June to 11th July the eastern end of the bypass carried 16,800 vpd, 2,000 more than other sections of the new scheme, central or western.
    • The traffic counts on the minor roads which cross the new bypass also showed some variations. Rope Lane (the westernmost of the two minor roads) showed a decrease in traffic of 900 vehicles or 17% (from 5,400 to 4,500 vpd). This road has no access to the new bypass and it seems likely that these 900 vehicles have diverted to other routes in order to be able to use at least part of the new road.
    • North of the bypass on Crewe Road, Shavington there was an increase of 600 vehicles (about 7%), but as this road forms an important link between Crewe and the Bypass it is not surprising that an increase in traffic is being shown.
    • North of junction 16 (the nearest junction of the M6) the M6 shows a 1.5% increase in traffic (from 126,300 to 128,200 vpd) after the new bypass was opened. This sort of increase is within the normal fluctuations of traffic variation which suggests that there has been an unproven level of distribution in the area. Traffic volume increases on the A500 west of Junction 16 do show however an increase of around 3,000 vehicles per day which goes some way to explaining the increases of traffic on the M6 itself.

4. conclusion

4. Conclusion

1. The traffic data collected as part of this Traffic Impact Study demonstrates that the new A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington Bypass, which officially opened on 22nd May 2003, carried between 15,000 and 17,000 vehicles per day (on an average weekday).
2. The traffic levels on the bypass are expected to increase when the rest of the Crewe Green Link Road is opened.
3. Traffic count data, post scheme opening, shows greatly reduced traffic volumes in Shavington and Hough, clearly indicating that the scheme has been successful in routing over 10,400 vehicles per day (nearly two thirds of the traffic) away from these villages.
4. The scheme has not affected traffic levels on the section of the A500 forming the Nantwich bypass or in the northern half of Nantwich itself. However, there has been a noticeable increase in traffic on Newcastle Road in Nantwich (to the west of the scheme) from 11,800 to 14,100 vehicles per day, and on the A500 east of the scheme (from 27,400 to 30,600).
5. Local traffic on the minor roads between Shavington and Crewe has been reduced on the roads not linking with the new road, and increased only slightly on the B5071 Crewe Road which forms the intermediate access point for the new road.
6. Journey times have been reduced, by up to 2 minutes on the old A500, and up to 4 minutes for those drivers who have transferred to the new road.
7. There have been large journey time reductions on the routes from east to west through Crewe, and the north - south route between Shavington and Crewe.
8. The One Year 'After' Count for this schemes' Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE) will be undertaken in June 2004.