Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Related pages

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Description of the Route
• Policy Objectives
• Route Functions
• Land Use & Development Control Policy
• Route Problems & Performance
• Route Outcomes
• Strategy Impact Statement

Executive Summary

Initial Draft Strategy - July 2004

Executive Summary

This report is prepared in accordance with the Route Management Strategy Guidance Version 2 dated November 2003.

Route Management Strategies provide the Highways Agency with a tool to plan and optimise investment in the trunk road network over the next 10 years. This is achieved through a process that links improvements to problems and policies.

The section of route under consideration is varied in its nature. The A259 from Hastings to Brenzett is a single carriageway road, approximately 27km long, passing through Winchelsea, Rye and several smaller villages. The alignment is relatively winding for a trunk road and there are several pinch points along the route. This is a tourist area in the summer and there are many areas of interest, with associated environmental constraints. Traffic levels are generally low, less than 10,000 vehicles per day.

The A2070 is a newer road, approximately 18km long, built to modern standards. At the northern end, around Ashford, it becomes a dual carriageway with the aim of supporting development to the south of Ashford. The route terminates at junction 10 of the M20, which is suffering from congestion problems at the present time. There are plans to build a new junction on the M20 to relieve this congestion. Traffic levels vary from 12,500 vehicles per day near Brenzett to 25,500 vehicles per day on the dual carriageway section to the south of Ashford.

A key output from the study is a series of 'Route Outcomes' defining the areas where change is most needed. The route outcomes emerging from this study are summarised below.

• Safety improvements where problems are identified
• Removal of pinch points where these generate problems, with particular reference to A259 between Winchelsea and Brenzett
• Environmental improvements with a focus on landscaping, ecology and lighting
• Better access to traveller facilities through better signing
• Better facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians where there are perceived shortfalls at specific locations
• Facilitation of development to the south of Ashford in around Rye, and at Hastings as part of the regeneration initiative. To be achieved through working with developers and other authorities, and the adoption of integrated transport policies

Further consultation will validate, or modify, the above findings.