Shropshire A5 dual carriageway study to start, says roads minister
A study into whether the A5 in north Shropshire should be turned into a dual carriageway will get under way next week, the Government has announced.
Roads minister John Hayes says Highways England will start work at the beginning of April on a thorough look at whether the 20-mile stretch of the road from Montford Bridge the western edge of Shrewsbury to Ruabon in North Wales could be made two lanes in both directions.
The news has been welcomed by campaigners who called for the Oswestry bypass to be made a dual carriageway when it was first built more than 25 years ago.
It comes after it was announced a public inquiry will be held into plans to build a long-awaited bypass around Newtown, Mid Wales.
The Welsh Assembly has announced that it will hold the inquiry, expected to last about three weeks, at a date to be confirmed, most likely to be in June.
The answer we already know. Of course it can.
If we can send people into space, create a high speed rail link at the cost of billions, and dig tunnels through mountain ranges, then dualling the A5 is simplicity itself.
The underlying question is whether doing so is worth the cost, which would inevitably be substantial in terms of money and impact on the environment and people living close to the route.
North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson thinks the best way to do it would be to dual the road in stages. That would keep the cost and disruption down to manageable chunks.
Motorists who suffer the frustration of using the existing road will see this study as a positive sign, although even in the best case scenario, there is a long road ahead.
This study is a start.
It is the A which could lead to B. Once completed, the plan will be fuelled up and ready on the grid awaiting the political green light.
The study into the A5 is one of the first projects to come from talks between the Government and the Welsh Assembly over issues facing those living on the border of Wales and England.
Mr Hayes said: "In the meetings representatives from both bodies will discuss matters that are not exclusively the responsibility of either the Highways Agency or Welsh Assembly but where the two bodies need to work together."
He said the agency was undertaking a study of the A5 trunk road north of Shrewsbury and that initial vehicle counting had already started.
"A traffic survey will be completed by the end of March. This will then be fed into a study proper which will start at the beginning of the financial year."
North Shropshire MP, Owen Paterson, said he had already spoken to the man heading the study, Robert Jaffier.
He said: "I expressed my view that the A5 simply must be dualled and that the best way to do it is in stages, starting with the sections between Wolf's Head and Queen's Head."
Highways England will be a Government-owned company which will replace the Highways Agency on April 1.
Meanwhile, the Welsh Assembly announced that work will start on the 3.6 mile (5.8km) Newtown bypass this year and it is not expected the inquiry would delay that pending a successful outcome.
Russell George, Montgomeryshire AM, said the announcement was "not unexpected" for a project of such a size.
Both Mr George and Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies have confirmed their support for the project for a number of years.
