Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

A27 Polegate Bypass

Report May 2003

4. Conclusion

4.1 The new A27 (T) Polegate Bypass, which opened on 19th June 2002, has attracted around 23,500 vehicles per day on an average weekday, with an immediate reduction in traffic using the old A27 Hailsham Road through Polegate of around 10,000 vehicles over an average weekday, which represents a 54% reduction in traffic levels.

4.2 There appears to be no strategic re-routing to the corridor. Some traffic has switched from the A259 west of Eastbourne and the A271 east of Eastbourne onto the new routes. West of Eastbourne and Polegate has seen slight increases on the A27, which has largely come from the A259 East Dean Road through East Dean, where a reduction of 900 vehicles per day (7%) was observed.

4.3 North of Polegate, there is an increase in flow on the A22 of 32%, largely balanced by a reduction on the B2104 Ersham Road, south of Hailsham, with some additional traffic using the A22 to join the A27 at Polegate rather than using the A271.

4.4 East of Polegate, there are increases in traffic volumes on the A27 Pevensey bypass of 4,400 vehicles per day (49%), with corresponding reductions of nearly 2,700 vehicles per day (24%) on the B2191 through Pevensey & Westham and 1,500 vehicles per day (9%) on the A259, south of Pevensey.

4.5 The new A22 County Road carries over 22,000 vehicles per average weekday. This has been largely matched by a decrease (20,000 vehicles per day) in traffic levels on other routes into Eastbourne.

• Particularly the B2104, where traffic levels have declined by 10,500 vehicles per day (a 41% decrease).
• A 5,000 vehicle per day (17%) decrease in daily traffic was also observed on the A2270 through Willingdon.
• The rest of the decrease is largely met from reductions on the B2191, where traffic volume reductions of 2,670 vpd (24% reduction) and
• A259 southwest of Pevensey, where daily traffic volumes of 1,500 (9% reduction) are shown.

4.6 A major benefit of the A27 / A22 scheme is the reduction of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) on the A2270 through Willingdon. There has been a decrease of 307 HGVs per day, which represents a 44% reduction on Eastbourne Road.

4.7 The journey time results illustrate that time savings of over 4 minutes are possible for movements that previously used the A27 Hailsham Road through Polegate but now use the new bypass. Traffic speeds have increased by up to 20 kph on the Hailsham Road as a result of the traffic flow reductions and speeds on the bypass are shown to be around 90kph.

4.8 The 'One Year After Assessment for this Schemes Post Opening Project Evaluation will be undertaken in June 2003. This assessment will undertake a more thorough assessment of traffic movements in the area.