Meeting documents

HCW/14/89

North Devon Highways and Traffic Orders Committee

18 November 2014

A361 West Buckland Junction

Report of the Head of Highways, Capital Development and Waste

Recommendation: It is recommended that:

(a) the concerns of East and West Buckland Parish Council are noted;

(b) the content of this report is noted and that current junction arrangements are maintained; and

(c) the County continue to monitor the highway safety at the junction as part of its routine monitoring of the network.

1. Introduction

The County Council has received representations from East and West Buckland Parish Council requesting that improvements be made to the A361 West Buckland Junction on highway safety grounds.

The North Devon Highways and Traffic Orders Committee of 8 July resolved "that a report be made to the next meeting on the safety and capacity issues, options and proposals relating to this junction".

2. Junction History and Design

The junction is a major/minor priority junction created at the time of construction of the A361 North Devon Link Road and was designed to standards current at the time.

The existing layout of the junction has been reviewed against the current design standard TD42/95 Geometric Design of Major/Minor Priority Junctions and found to be compliant for both capacity and visibility.

Capacity

The annual average daily total flow on the A361 is 13,000 vehicles.

No current data on the flows to and from West Buckland is available but a flow of approximately 1,000 vehicles per day was recorded in 2003. It is reasonable to extrapolate that the figure currently would be less than 2,000 vehicles per day.

For the given traffic flows TD42/95 indicates that a ghost island priority junction is acceptable.

Visibility

A review of the visibility from the side roads on both sides of the A361 shows them to be compliant with current design standards.

3. Road Safety Considerations

Road Traffic collision data has been reviewed for the period 2009 to 2013. Two casualty collisions have been recorded in that period both entailing slight injuries.

Correspondence from the parish council makes reference to 6 collisions in the period April 2009 to March 2014 which are included in the Road Traffic Collision report provided by the Devon and Cornwall Police. Examination of the report in detail reveals that of the 6 collisions included, 3 were remote from the junction and one was damage only which would explain the apparent discrepancy.

The recorded collision history would not support improvement of the junction within the casualty severity reduction programme.

4. Proposal

It is proposed that the current arrangements at the junction remain unchanged and that the situation is monitored.

However, the North Devon Link Road is currently the subject of a consultation process regarding potential future improvements. Options will be considered that will form likely future bids for funding to the Government through the Heart of South West LEP. The impact of any improvement schemes in the vicinity on this junction will need to be considered as part of the design work.

5. Reasons for Recommendations

The data relating to the design and the collision history does not support the request for improvement of the junction.

David Whitton

Head of Highways, Capital Development and Waste

Electoral Divisions: South Molton Rural and Chulmleigh & Swimbridge

Local Government Act 1972: List of Background Papers

Contact for enquiries: Rhys Davies

Room No: Civic Centre, Barnstaple

Tel No: 01392 388526

Background Paper	Date	File Ref.
Representations received	November and December 2013	P081

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sc/cr/A361 west buckland junction

03 071114