A local councillor has called on the West of England Metro Mayor to step in and sort out traffic congestion around the Aztec West Roundabout, which is widely considered to have worsened significantly for the majority of road users since South Gloucestershire Council spent £4.5m on a road improvement scheme that took 18 months to implement.

Speaking at a Bradley Stoke Town Council committee meeting on 19th February, Cllr Brian Hopkinson said he had raised the matter with metro mayor Tim Bowles and asked him to liaise with SGC’s transport lead Cllr Colin Hunt and other members of the SGC Cabinet.

Relaying the story of a lady who works in Filton and frequently takes one-and-a-half hours to get home to Alveston in the afternoon peak, Cllr Hopkinson said:

“We’ve had so many roadworks, and for so long. Lots of work has been done, at the M5 J16 roundabout as well, and we hoped it would be sorted, but it’s not. It’s absolute rubbish!”

Another town councillor, Ben Randles, described his own experience of long queues forming in the other direction, for traffic coming off the M5 and wishing to turn left into Bradley Stoke. He reported that he had seen numerous “bumper incidents” and added: “For traffic continuing down the A38, it’s fine, but if you’re heading into Bradley Stoke it’s often quicker to pretend you’re turning right to Aztec West and then go all the way round the roundabout.”

More: Massive delays for traffic exiting the Aztec West Business Park »

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The recently completed £4.5 million project to reduce congestion and install pedestrian crossing points at the Aztec West Roundabout has been branded a “complete failure” by one motorist who says the new road layout has added half-an-hour to the time it takes him to exit the Aztec West Business Park each evening.

In an email to the Journal, the commuter, who we have chosen not to name, talks about the “environmental catastrophe” of cars queuing around the entire loop road of the business park and says the issue has seriously affected his quality of life because he no longer gets home in time to see his children before they go to bed.

As previously reported, and corroborated by many other readers, the main issue appears to be the throttling effect of traffic signals at a new pedestrian crossing on the slip road between the business park exit and the A38 northbound.

In an effort to beat the queues, frustrated drivers exiting the business park are using the wrong lanes and then cutting in at the last minute to reach the left filter lane onto the A38. Some of them are even continuing onto the roundabout using the lanes designated for Bradley Stoke and then making a left turn onto the A38, thereby by-passing the troublesome left filter lane. In doing so they cause a hold up that prevents the people in the correct lane from being able to make progress when the lights turn green.

“In short, these road updates have been a complete failure. Occasionally there was traffic like this before the changes, usually for a good reason such as a motorway accident, but it was never for three consecutive days in a row [as experienced in the first week of January] with no incidents in sight,” adds the commuter.

More: Timing of signals at M5 J16 roundabout also an issue »

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South Gloucestershire Council’s (SGC’s) highways department has been accused of responding inadequately to reports of recurring issues with the new traffic lights at the Aztec West Roundabout in the days before a major fault caused gridlock throughout Bradley Stoke during the morning rush hour on Monday 16th October.

The latest incident follows two earlier ones associated with the same system of lights, in August and September, which led to traffic being trapped in the Aztec West Business Park for up to two hours during the afternoon peak.

Following the first incident in August, which was attributed to a “software issue”, SGC said it would “continue to monitor the operation of the signals” and might “carry out some minor adjustments to ensure that they work as effectively as possible for all users”.

Signs of potential issues with the lights on the Bradley Stoke side of the roundabout were first notified to the council on 5th October, through a FixMyStreet report which warned of the green phase for traffic exiting Bradley Stoke Way lasting just a few seconds. Sunday 15th October saw numerous further reports of a similar nature being registered on the Journal’s Facebook page along with observations that traffic was tailed back to Patchway Brook Roundabout on what is normally the quietest day of the week. Several readers raised concerns about what might happen on the following Monday morning if the issue wasn’t fixed; however, one reader who took the trouble to report it via the council’s traffic signals hotline (0800 854229) was told it was “not classed as urgent”.

Come Monday morning, it soon became clear that the issue hadn’t been resolved and commuters were left to face the consequences, with long tailbacks of near-stationary traffic down both Bradley Stoke Way and Brook Way. One Journal reader reported that it took an hour just to travel between Tesco and Aldi, a distance of less than a mile.

More: Scathing comments from BSJ readers; council’s responses »

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South Gloucestershire Council has announced plans to close the inside lane of the A38 southbound approach to the Aztec West Roundabout for four days later this week, in order to carry out a “significant” gas main diversion.

The move breaks an assurance given by the council prior to the commencement of the project that major carriageway work would not be carried out on the A38 until “after the Bradley Stoke Way section of the MetroBus works has been completed”.

The work on the A38 is being funded as part of an £18.1 million Growth Deal award made to the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership and is intended to “mitigate the impact of traffic arising from new developments”, such as the Cribbs/Patchway New Neighbourhood where 5,700 new homes are expected to be constructed by 2027.

The upcoming carriageway work, which is being carried out jointly with Wales & West Utilities, will commence on the morning of Thursday 12th January, when a lane closure will be placed on the A38 southbound. This will reduce the number of traffic lanes from four down to three. The lane closure will then stay in place throughout the whole of the following Friday, Saturday and Sunday while the gas diversion is being completed. It is anticipated that the diversion will be finished in time for reopening the lane for the morning peak of Monday 16th January.

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesperson said:

“The work has been planned for January in order to have the least impact on traffic, although motorists are advised to allow additional journey time to mitigate for any delays.”

Commenting on the overlap with the ongoing MetroBus works on Bradley Stoke Way, the spokesperson added:

“The current major construction work taking place on the A38 southbound is advanced utility work and this has been planned and booked many months in advance. Unfortunately, delays in the MetroBus project will see an overlap of work. However this has been mitigated as much as possible by removing the central reserve, creating an additional lane, and 24-hour working over a four day period. Cancelling the work was not possible without causing major impacts on budgets and the timing of the overall construction programme.”

More: Work brought forward following discovery of additional gas mains »

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