County pledge on new road junctions

C.T. December 17, 1965 A COUNTY surveyor's department official promised at a meeting in Highcliffe on Monday that the two staggered junctions on the planned Highcliffe relief road which the county council hopes to build at some time in the 1970's will be looked at again before the road is built The junctions, similar to the two on Christchurch by-pass are where Gordon Road crosses the new road and where Wharncliffe Road, Lymington Road and a new Wolhayes estate road join it. The cross roads were the "biggest headache", said Mr. K. A. N. Thwaite, senior engineer in the county surveyor's department. But he didn't hold out much hope of an underpass road, although the county has already agreed to one pedestrian subway or footbridge. The meeting was called by Highcliffe Citizens' Association to find out more about the proposal for the road. Borough Surveyor, Mr. E.B. Wise, explained the plan was to widen Lymington Road and Highcliffe Road from Somerford roundabout to a point opposite Highcliffe Parish Church into a dual carriageway as wide as Christchurch by-pass. The new dual carriageway road would then by-pass the village centre to the north, first meeting a staggered junction of Greenways on one side and Wharncliffe Road and Lymington Road on the other. NEW ESTATE The next crossing would be at Gordon Road, and the traffic along Chewton Common Road from the new estate and from parts of Walkford would be channelled through this junction. Another staggered junction of Lymington Road and Ringwood Road would cross the new road before the borough boundary. The road would then continue to Lane's Garage. New Milton. Mr. Thwaite explained that the road would be mainly a distributor road for the district and for some through traffic from New Milton and Lymington. It would be a "spine" serving the traffic needs of the conurbation, not a by-pass. The figures to support this argument were produced by Mr. Wise. A three-day traffic survey in 1956 showed that a "far flung" by-pass of the village centre would only siphon off a third of the traffic along Lymington Road. A road close to Lymington Road was needed. Only 78 per cent of the traffic in Lymington Road was going through the village; the rest was local traffic. Mr. Wise said that the road had been planned 30 years ago and the proposal remained substantially the same. He explained that plans had to be made many years ahead so that development could be arranged to suit them. ROUTES He traced a history of alternative route plans, a yellow route, to the east of Walkford, a green route from the boundary to Roeshot Hill, and orange and brown ones to the south of the shopping centre, near Wharncliffe Road. At one stage the county council wanted two of them, but finally, earlier this year, the Ministry of Housing would only allow the present route. The county's promise of a footbridge or a pedestrian subway near Gordon Road resulted from the local highways committee's investigation of Highcliffe Citizens' Association's observations on the Buchanan Report. On the question of safety, the borough surveyor told the citizens: "Christchurch by-pass has been quoted as a standard by which one might conjecture the accident rate on this road. I do not feel it can be taken as a standard". Mr. Wise said he had carried out a survey from the police records of accidents during the four summer months this year and last year. He compared Christchurch by-pass, the old town route from Somerford to High Street, and Barrack Road. In both cases there were fewer accidents on the -by-pass.

This year's figures were: Barrack Road 28, town route 24, by-pass 20. One of the accidents on the by-pass was a fatality, he agreed, but pointed out that there was another fatality in Highcliffe Road during the same period. "As soon as an accident happens on the by-pass, the road is at once accused of being the cause of it", he commented. Dealing with the junctions on the new road, Mr. Wise said the planners had three choices: a flyover, a roundabout or a cross roads. A flyover wasn't practicable because of its cost, so the choice was between a cross roads and a roundabout. STUDY Mr. Thwaite said the result of the land use and transportation study being carried out at present in the Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole area might affect the new road. The line had been settled, but modifications might be made. He said that the county council now realised that the development of the new estates had made the two minor roads crossing the new road more important. "Before the road is built we will look at these junctions again. As for the timing of the construction, Mr. Thwaite was hopeful that a start could be made in the 1970's. The county's latest bid in the grant requests to the Ministry, who paid 75 per cent of the cost, was for 1969, but nobody took this seriously. UPSET When the road was built, he thought it would be likely to have a 40 mph speed limit. On present day thinking we would be upset if we didn't get a 40 mph limit, he said. Coun. Peter Dobson was far from satisfied with a pedestrian subway at Gordon Road. Seventy per cent of the population will have to cross this road. You are going to get more traffic crossing this road than you will ever get on Christchurch by-pass. Mr. Thwaite pointed out that the choice had been between divorcing the population from the shops, or separating both from the sea.