£4m scheme to improve Nuneaton's notorious Coton Arches roundabout gets start date

[dutchman]

Council hopes to get work on extra lane started as soon as possible



A £4million project to improve congestion at a notorious bottleneck in Nuneaton could start within six months.

The Coton Arches roundabout scheme has been on the cards for more than 18 months, but until now no start date had been suggested.

But at a meeting at Warwickshire County Council, where councillors agreed to put £1.7m towards the project, it was suggested that work could start as early as January.

Jeff Clarke, ward member for Nuneaton St Nicolas on the county council, told the Telegraph: “We said at the meeting that we wanted to get this up and running as soon as possible and we are looking at, maybe, work commencing early next year.

“Unfortunately to make things better sometimes you are going to get problems with traffic (while being built), but we have to get it right and it will make a big difference to everyone in the area once complete.”

Coton Road will be extended across the roundabout, providing two dedicated lanes onto the A444 Chilvers Rise.

The two lanes currently available to traffic down to Chilvers Rise towards the roundabout will be changed into three lanes, giving another lane access towards the town. Traffic lights will also be installed.

Local businesses say the work will end years of traffic jam misery for motorists.

Tony Wilkes, manager at the Ropewalk Shopping Centre, said: “We’re welcoming the works at the Coton Arches Roundabout.

“The extra lane on the roundabout will help to ease congestion for our shoppers and make their experience at Ropewalk even more pleasant.

“This comes after many years of congested traffic and we also look forward to more improvements to the town centre which will support the daily shoppers.”

A county council report said: “Once completed, the project should alleviate traffic congestion, improve road safety and support housing and employment proposals.

“The scheme alleviates problems caused by the local plan which proposes housing growth north of Nuneaton and employment growth south of Nuneaton and so requires improved transport infrastructure.

“It supports the premise that investment in infrastructure, aimed specifically at reducing congestion, improving road safety and improving accessibility, will drive economic growth and increase jobs and output.”

[dutchman]

Congestion fix needed at new multi-million pound Hamburger Island



Congestion around Nuneaton's new look 'traffic-busting' roundabout could be solved by changing traffic light times.

Problems have been widely shared on social media about the new Coton Arches roundabout system causing more back-ups than there were before the multi-million pound works.

Much has been said about the sequencing of the new traffic lights around the island and now these will be raised at Warwickshire County Council.

County councillor Clare Golby said she has been in talks with the county council's traffic team about issues, especially around Coventry Road.

"I’ve been in discussions with the county council's traffic team about this arm of the junction and reviewing the timings on the lights at the other junctions to allow traffic to flow from Coventry Road better," Cllr Golby said.

She said, having driven around the new roundabout, she has seen first-hand the delays caused by the flow of traffic on Coventry Road which needs to travel around the roundabout.

"The lights aren’t allowing enough traffic in the right hand lane lane to clear," the Arbury ward representative said.

"Anyone on the roundabout wanting to take the A444 heading up towards Coton Rise has a pretty much clear run.

"It’s early days and the information that I’ve had is that traffic signal engineers are monitoring and still making adjustments but I’ll be keeping an eye on things too."

It is not just the changes to the Coton Arches roundabout, there are plans to make wider improvements to traffic in the area.

There are proposals for a traffic light junction at Heath End Road/Greenmoor Road, to replace the mini roundabout outside the Horseshoes pub.

Junction improvements are also set to be made at the Bull Ring/College Street junctions and, as a result, the Coton Rise/ College Street roundabout will be reconfigured.