Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Related pages

• Executive summary
• 1 introduction
• 2 existing conditions
• 3 description of proposed route
• 4 engineering assessment
• 5 environmental assessment
• 6 traffic and economic assessment
• 7 consultation
• 8 conclusions

4 engineering assessment

4 ENGINEERING ASSESSMENT

4.1 Introduction

This commission did not require an engineering assessment of any of the proposals to be carried out at this stage. The purpose of the brief is to establish if the chosen schemes are sufficiently robust in terms of current highway economics and environmental standards and in the light of today's public expectations to achieve entry into the Targeted Programme of Improvements. It was considered that to save time and money at this stage it is acceptable to use those schemes that were previously progressed through to public consultation to use as a basis for producing an estimate.

4.2 Engineering Standards

The previous dualling schemes proposed 7.3m carriageways with 1.0m hard strips resulting in two carriageway widths of 9.3 metres. These schemes have not been designed to current standards, however if the scheme was progressed, further design work would be required to establish a preferred route that complied with current standards. Those sections of the route where the existing single carriageway is to be improved have been considered in accordance with current design standards and cost estimates calculated on this basis.

4.3 Junction Layouts

The proposed junction layout for all the dualling options for the purpose of this estimate is to provide grade-separated junctions. It should be noted that the design process is at apreliminary stage and the type and location of junctions is likely to change in the future.