South Gloucestershire Council’s £2.9m scheme to improve to increase capacity and improve cyclist and pedestrian facilities at Great Stoke (Rabbit) Roundabout has seen 200 tonnes of material excavated from the verge on the north-west side of the roundabout during the first six weeks of construction activity.

This work, combined with the laying of 60 metres of new kerb on the north-east side of the roundabout, has paved the way for road widening to begin.

The power supply for the new traffic signals on each arm of the roundabout has been also installed and is ready for two of the four new traffic crossings, once they have been put in place.

Meanwhile, Openreach has nearly finished work to construct a large underground chamber (around 15 cubic metres) to house telecommunications infrastructure.

In the coming weeks, the council says it will be making preparations for new toucan crossing traffic signals to be installed on the north-east side of the roundabout. Workers will also be completing the road widening element on the north-west side, ready for new traffic signals infrastructure.

The roadworks have continued to cause significant delays for motorists and buses, particularly on the Bradley Stoke Way southbound approach during the morning peak hours.

More: Council responds to criticism over lack of activity at site »

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One of the most potholed sections of highway in Bradley Stoke is scheduled to be fully resurfaced at the end of February, according to a notice recently published on the town council website.

The stretch of Woodlands Lane between its junction with The Park and the pedestrian crossing near the entrance to Woodlands Park has developed so many deep potholes that they have merged together to form metre-long ruts which at some points expose multiple layers of older road surface.

The potholes at this location have been the focus of many complaints, with reports on the FixMyStreet reporting website going back more than two years.

In a discussion on the BSJ Facebook page about the road damage at this location, one reader quipped (in February 2019):

“I thought Time Team had forgotten to fill in after their dig!”

Many months ago, marking paint was sprayed around the potholes, giving the impression that repairs were about to take place, but nothing happened and the markings have now been warn away by the heavy traffic.

South Gloucestershire Council has informed local residents that it intends to carry out the major resurfacing work overnight (between 8pm and 6am) from Monday 24th February to Thursday 27th February. The work will involve planing off the existing surface of the carriageway, which the council warns will create a “significant amount of noise”.

For the duration of the works, the road will be closed from 8pm each night and all traffic will be diverted around the area whilst the closures are in place.

More: Access to properties fronting the site will be maintained »

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The managing director of the bus company responsible for running the M1 MetroBus service has singled out the recently commenced roadworks at Great Stoke (Rabbit) Roundabout as an example of long-term infrastructure works that have been planned with insufficient consideration being given to maintaining public transport flows.

James Freeman (pictured), MD of First West of England, made the reference in an open letter on the effect that traffic congestion is having on bus services across Greater Bristol, but particularly in the so-called North Fringe.

What seems to have made Mr Freeman particularly annoyed is that his company had just introduced additional peak-hours capacity on the M1 service to cope with increasing demand from passengers in the Bradley Stoke and Stoke Gifford areas – increasing the number of seats per hour from 450 to 600.

However, the day after the extra journeys were added to the timetable, South Gloucestershire Council closed the bus lane on the approach to Great Stoke Roundabout and introduced flow-throttling narrow lanes for general traffic.

Not only has this introduced delays of up to 40min on each journey through Bradley Stoke in the morning peak as the M1 buses sit in traffic between the Willow Brook Centre and Rabbit Roundabout, it has also “totally disrupted the rest of the service straight through the morning, all the way to the very south of the city”.

Expanding on his statements in an interview with the Journal, Mr Freeman conceded that First was made aware of the upcoming roadworks, although he claims SGC failed to properly communicate the scale of the works and their likely effect on bus services.

Elsewhere in the North Fringe, traffic congestion on the A4174 Ring Road is having a severe impact on the reliability of the M3 MetroBus service. Here, Mr Freeman says there is a need to have dedicated bus lanes in both directions “all the way round to Keynsham”, doing away with the current 2+ lanes which he describes a being a “complete cop out” and “unenforceable”.

More: MetroBus system at risk of being "entirely discredited" »

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The start of the construction phase of South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) £2.9m scheme of improvements at Great Stoke (Rabbit) Roundabout on Thursday 2nd January has brought peak-time gridlock to Bradley Stoke on a scale rarely seen since the notorious MetroBus roadworks of 2015-17.

Perhaps due to a staggered return to work after the Christmas and New Year break, the full impact on traffic only began to show itself from the second week in January, with BBC Bristol reporting delays of around 30min on Bradley Stoke Way southbound.

By Monday 13th January the delays were up to 40min, with traffic queued back to the Willow Brook Centre and beyond.

Commuters desperate to avoid the delays began to explore alternative routes, leading to the clogging up of Brook Way and Baileys Court Road during the morning peak. The former then impacted flows on another route out of town, Braydon Avenue.

And it’s not just private road users who have been affected – the flagship M1 MetroBus service has suffered immensely – partly due to the removal of the bus lane on the approach to Great Stoke Roundabout, but more so because the buses have found themselves locked in traffic queues on other sections of Bradley Stoke Way where bus lanes were considered unjustifiable on cost grounds.

The delays at Great Stoke Roundabout have also hindered students from the Stokes who attend Winterbourne Academy, including those who travel on the 963 school bus, which has additionally experienced operational troubles of its own making since the start of the new term [read more here].

All this comes before SGC confronts road users with a second set of major roadworks in the area, the full closure of Gipsy Patch Lane at the railway bridge, for eight months, currently expected to commence on 6th March.

More: Traffic situation is "constantly being monitored" »

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