Portsmouth City Centre – Transforming Cities Fund (TCF)
TMS have completed a series of comprehensive Road Safety Audits from preliminary design at Stage 1 through to the post construction at Stage 3, within Portsmouth City Centre, under the Transforming Cities Project.
What is the Transforming Cities Fund?
The TCF is a £2.45 billion capital grant transport fund aimed at driving up productivity through investments in public and sustainable transport infrastructure in some of England’s largest city regions. Improving access to good jobs within English cities and encouraging an increase in journeys, made by low-carbon and sustainable modes of transport, are key objectives of the TCF. The TCF also aims to support wider cross-cutting priorities such as tackling air pollution, delivering more homes and delivering apprenticeships and improving skills investments.
Our client was commissioned by Portsmouth City Council to design the highway improvement schemes under the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF). The aim was to provide bus and cycle improvements to the network, improve pedestrian links and journey times within the city. TMS were involved with auditing key highway areas of the city, at various stages, including City Centre North, City Centre South and Lake Road Corridor.
City Centre North (Charlotte Street and Unicorn Junction)
For this area of the city, a new link was created between Cascades Approach and Unicorn Road, including a two-way bus lane. The junction with the A3 and Unicorn Road was redesigned to include a slip lane from the A3 to Unicorn Road. Charlotte Street was also redesigned to incorporate a one-way bus lane, which connects Cascades Approach to Commercial Road through the existing high street.
City Centre South
The City Centre South highway scheme removed the existing roundabout and installed a signalised junction. A cycle lane had been added to both sides of Station Street (eastern arm) and to the approach of the roundabout from Stanhope Road (western arm). New pedestrian crossings were also installed at each approach arm. An existing uncontrolled crossing had been signalised on Isambard Brunel Road at the location of a loading bay.
Lake Road Corridor
This scheme consisted of widening Lake Road (west) to create a west-bound bus lane and on-carriageway segregated cycleways in both directions. This involved diversion of existing utilities, new drainage and lighting and resurfacing of the entire road. Lake Road / Holbrook Road roundabout was retained with adjustments to the geometry. In Lake Road (east) the scheme included the provision of two on-carriageway cycle lanes, improvement to pedestrian facilities and upgrading the existing pelican crossing to a signalised crossing for pedestrians and cyclists.
Neal Roderick, who formed part of the audit team, commented “It was rewarding to work through the various audits from Stage 1 right through to Stage 3 and to see the designs come to fruition. If Stage 4 Road Safety Audits are commissioned in the future, we hope to be involved with these too. It will be interesting to see how the highway schemes are used by the various road users and if they have made significant improvements to the city”.
If you have a scheme of this nature that requires a Road Safety Audit, then please call us on +44 (0)24 7669 0900 or alternatively please email Lorna Styring or request a quote using the link below.