Road Safety Audits at former Drakelow Power Station
For over the past year, TMS have been involved in carrying out numerous Road Safety Audits, at different stages of the design process, on the Section 278 works which form part of the Drakelow Power Station project, known as Drakelow Park.
The former power station site consisted of a series of three, now decommissioned and demolished coal-fired power stations, located south of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. The power stations were built on the site of Drakelow Hall, a stately home on the south bank of the river Trent.
The Drakelow Park development, one of the largest brownfield site development opportunities in the Midlands, marks the end of decades of planning to bring thousands of homes to the former power station site. The mixed-used development comprises of up to 2,200 new homes, including a retirement village, new primary school, local centres with commercial and community use, and associated infrastructure, including new parks. Three new roundabout junctions will also provide access to the site, connecting a network of adopted highways.
Future development plans also involve the building of the new Walton bypass and bridge. The bridge will replace the aging single lane temporary Bailey Bridge which can no longer cope with the amount of daily traffic using the 70-year-old structure.
Header image courtesy of Insider Media
Image to the right courtesy of Staffordshire Live
Since July 2022, our auditors Richard Marriott and Lee Williams have carried out various design stage road safety audits to include the Section 278 works for the two main site access roundabouts (northern and southern roundabouts) plus various carriageway widening.
The section 278 works which were audited by our team, consisted of roundabouts being constructed along the existing alignment, with a slight deviation to accommodate the circulatory and provide deflection. The roundabouts will have a 3-metre-wide shared use footway-cycleway running along the northbound lane. The northern roundabout’s arm into the site will go directly into a residential development, and the arm coming off the southern roundabout will serve the commercial business park development at the southern extent of the site, with a priority junction link to the residential site along it.
This extensive project will continue for some years yet and we are certain our audit team will be back to site soon to carry out further Road Safety Audits to support the ongoing developments at Drakelow Park.
If you have a scheme that requires a Road Safety Audit on a residential or commercial development for its Section 278 or Section 38 works, then please call us on +44 (0)24 7669 0900 or alternatively please email Lorna Styring.