Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Background

The A5 trunk road connects the Southeast, East Midlands and the West Midlands, providing important links between the M1, M6, M42 and M69 motorways in North Warwickshire and West Leicestershire.

Between Rugby and Atherstone, the A5 forms the boundary between Leicestershire and Warwickshire and follows the line of the Watling Street Roman road.  It is mostly a single carriageway road, but parts of it have been improved to dual carriageway standards.  All its junctions are on a single level, and they include roundabouts, signalised junctions and simple priority junctions.  At the Red Gate junction near Fenny Drayton, the A444 Nuneaton to Burton upon Trent road crosses the A5 at a staggered pair of junctions through which the A5 has dual carriageways.

In 2002, following a number of serious accidents, we closed one lane of the A5 through the junction each way and improved the road markings and signs.  This prevented overtaking and offered better protection to vehicles queuing to turn right.  In 2008, we reduced the speed limit on the A5 to 50mph.  Although the safety of the junction has improved, traffic on the A444 wanting to join or cross the A5 now experiences longer queues. 

In the summer of 2006 we consulted on three options for improving the Red Gate junction. 

Option 1 was for a simple two-level junction, with the A5/A444 junctions converted to left-turn only operation and the two parts of the A444 linked by a bridge over the A5 west of the current junction.  Options 2 and 3 were both for roundabouts providing links to the A5 and A444 both ways.  Under Option 2 the roundabout would be built on the line of the A5, whereas under Option 3 it would be built on land north of the A5, northeast of the easterly (Watling Street/Weddington Lane) junction of A5 and A444.  Option 3 would allow parts of the current A5 to be removed and converted to landscaping, moving the main road away from homes.  Under Options 2 and 3 new links would be provided to the A444 to the north and south.  Redundant sections of the A444 Weddington Lane and Atherstone Lane would be retained to provide access to residences and businesses including the Royal Red Gate public house, but their junctions with the A5 would be closed. 

Almost three-quarters (73%) of the 184 people who responded to the consultation favoured Option 3.  Of those who did not, most identified Option 3 as their second preference.  A minority of people favoured the installation of traffic lights at the junctions, but we had investigated and rejected that idea for congestion and safety reasons.

Next Steps - Programme

As a result of the delays being experienced by traffic on the A444, the improvement of the Red Gate junction has been identified as a priority transport improvement by the West Midlands regional authorities in their advice to the Department for Transport on the second round of the regional funding allocation. 

The next stage in the development of the scheme is our advice to the Minister on the preferred route for the junction improvement.  We had hoped to be able to achieve this late in 2009.  However, because of the lapse of time since the options consultation closed in 2006 we are reviewing the scheme designs.  We must also prepare new scheme appraisals before advising the Minister so we can be sure that improvement of the junction continues to represent good value for the expenditure of public funds.  We now hope to be able to advise the Minster on the preferred route during 2010, though that will depend on progress with design development and the outcome of the appraisals. 

The purpose of the preferred route announcement is to allow the line of the preferred route to be protected from development.  It does not guarantee that the scheme will proceed.

Once the preferred route announced, the next stage in the development of the scheme will be the preparation of a Development Consent Order (DCO) application under the Planning Act 2008.  That Act replaces the previous regime of orders preparation under the Highways Act 1980 and related legislation.  Our target, subject to confirmation of funding, is to submit the DCO application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) by the end of fiscal year 2010-11 (by March 2011).  The application will be examined by a commissioner or panel of commissioners and there will be an opportunity for further consultation on the proposals.

Subject to the confirmation of funding at each stage and progression through the DCO process, it might be possible for us to start the improvement of the Red Gate junction in the financial year 2012-13 for completion in 2014.