I would appreciate information on how the decision was arrived at to create a new round about, rather than install traffic lights, at where the road from North Molton to South Molton crosses the A361.
It would be appreciated to receive sufficient information to trace the entire process, including local involvement and why one solution over another.
We can confirm that we have available technical reports dating back to 2012, which includes an investigation of 4 initial junction options including a signalised option (March 2012) and an addendum report including 2 further options (September 2012) as below:
Option 1: Grade separated junction – Bridge to the east and compact junction to the west of the existing junction
Option 2: Grade separated junction – Bridge to the east and compact junction to the east of the existing junction
Option 3: At-grade junction – signal-controlled junction
Option 4: Grade separated junction – Bridge to the west of the existing junction
Option 5: At-grade junction – Longabout (extended roundabout)
Option 6: At-grade junction – Single roundabout
These reports can be accessed here
Further, an evaluation note of the options (November 2012), which includes capacity assessment of Options 1-4 above and a roundabout option (Option 6). The note concludes that all options considered for this junction operate below the theoretical capacity for these junctions, with no congestion experienced under these scenarios.
The evaluation note can be accessed here
There were a series of public consultations that followed in 2014, 2016 and 2017 on the North Devon Link Road scheme to inform the Business Case development with opportunities for the public to comment on proposals for the Borner’s Bridge junction improvements.
The 2016 public consultation report stated “West Buckland, Borners Bridge and Landkey were all highlighted as junctions that should be included in the proposals. A high proportion of the respondents that raised these areas noted that they perceived the current designs to be unsafe. Suggestions for improvements were varied and included: flyovers, traffic lights, traffic islands and roundabouts”.
Based on the 2016 report a further public consultation report in 2017 stated “Respondents generally agree with the proposed junction improvements to Borner’s Bridge Junction, West Buckland Junction and Landkey Junction and the banning of right turns at Hacche Lane Junction, though some feel that all the junctions should be grade separated, whilst others believe that West Buckland Junction should be a roundabout”. A grade separated junction improvement at Borner’s Bridge was discarded as an option due to land constraints (see Appendix G table of modifications via the links) and the roundabout solution remained the preferred scheme but with safe pedestrian and cycle crossing points agreed as a modification to the scheme following the consultation response.
A full list of the above mentioned project documents that supported the business case decision making process are available here Project documents – The North Devon Link Road