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by Lib Dem team on 14 March, 2013
Local MP Mark Hunter has been tackling the Highways Agency over residents’ concerns about their slip-road scheme.
The £6 million scheme to improve the M60 along the “Sharston by-pass” section (Junctions 2-4) included work on the slip road taking traffic from the M60 onto Kingsway at J3. The road was expanded to three lanes, with flip-flop lights where the slip road meets the A34.
Several concerns have been raised by residents which Mark and the local councillors are pressing the Highways Agency with:
We are very concerned about the scheme, which was completed in December 2012. We believe it’s failed to do what the Highways Agency thought it would, made life more difficult for South Park Road Estate residents and has delayed desperately-needed improvements to the Gatley lights timing.
We will continue to press the Highways Agency – they need to sort this out, and quickly.
14 Comments
The right turn from Cheadle towards Manchester is actually worse now. A friend who does this in the morning rush tells me that there is now a 13 minute wait, from the post box at the end of Richmond Hill Road, to making a right turn. Locals have asked for right filter for years. Even 5 seconds would allow twice as many cars through. It’s what we all want – there is clearly no local democracy!
Whenever. Right turn from Cheadle has been raised, the answer is no, we can’t delay the N/ S traffic. You don’t need to, allow 10 secs for a righ turn from the E/W sequence. I agree though, the queues are appalling, often back to the bottom of Milton and the White Hart lights. It’s easy to feel that Cheadle is a forgotten centre.
Hi Alan, Roger,
You’re right – we’ve raised this many times and had studies done to look into it in detail. The answer has always been the same: even a very short right turn sequence of just a few seconds would have a big knock-on effect on queues north-south and also queues for traffic going straight ahead from Cheadle and Gatley. The Highways Agency and TfGM have consistently looked at that and said “no”.
We know we won’t get a right-turn filter; to my mind there’s little point as a councillor fighting for something I know I can’t achieve: that won’t help the people of Cheadle and Gatley trying to get through the junction.
We’re working to get the best that we can achieve, and that’s what this is all about.
Coming off the motorway from Stockport onto the A34 going south to turn right into Gatley is now much safer as the traffic coming down the A34 from Manchester is now stationery by traffic lights.
I agree with Alan Gent. Have the Highways Agency / TfGM shown you proof that a short right-turn sequence would cause a knock on effect? If so could the traffic light sequence be shortened to compensate. Would they consider a trial period? Who can we can we contact to apply pressure?
I don’t think the traffic light cycle has been changed. It still seems to be 2 minutes.
Traffic can turn right from Cheadle when traffic is turning left from Gatley. Could there be some lane markings to help?
John Allwork
Hi Malcolm – you’re right. That’s definitely one of the improvements we were looking for and you no longer have to fight your way across the traffic to get into the Gatley lane.
There’s a problem if you’re coming from the South Park Road Estate, but going from the motorway to Gatley is better.
Although the junction from the Stockport direction to Gatley is much improved, I think the right-hand lane signs should read “Gatley (only)”. I have seen impatient speeders using it as an overtaking lane for Wilmslow bound traffic even if they have to swing in and stop at the exit lights (from M56).
Can there be a box junction where South Park Road egress enters the new junction for Kingsway southbound? Cars from the M60 still race up to the lights and it’s difficult to judge which lane they will opt for, so getting across to the nearside is sometimes a bit of a scary exercise.
Also, the “new traffic signals” sign is rather small, especially for those coming at speed (even 40mph) from the M60.
Hi Iain, at the last cheadle area meeting there was some discussion from councillors pointing out how effective the new roadworks were! In particular, if i recall correctly, councillor somekh was very enthusiastic about the ease with which she could exit the motorway from stockport and get onto the a34. It would seem to me from your comments that councillors want the highways people to explain why the new system is not working as well as they promised. My question is this, if the highways have got it wrong with the new roadworks maybe they are also wrong about the effect a new designated righthand turn from cheadle onto the a34 might have? Perhaps if they are asked to revise their calculations etc., they should also revisit the right-hand turn problem.
Cheers,
Kath
Hi Kath,
We’d much prefer that they fix it rather than explaining why it’s not working; though some things are working much better. For example, to get to Gatley from the motorway is generally much easier now, especially outside rush hour.
We’re pressing for the right-turn problem to be revisited. The first step is to reduce the cycle time – it’s easy to try and if if creates longer queues than we expect on other directions then we’ll know a right-turn filter would be worse still. If however it created shorter queues than predicted, that might open the door to looking at a right-turn filter again.
Hi Iain
The cycle time doesn’t have to be reduced. All that is needed is a right turn filter for say 10-15 secs, and reduce the direct East/West time. This should not affect the north/south traffic.
It may not even create longer queues east/west as sometimes the traffic (in particular from Gatley) is held up by the right-turning traffic
John Allwork
The main issue being overlooked here is not the lights at Gatley Road, but the volume of traffic exiting the M60 at J3. J3 is the only Southbound exit between J1 and Sharston. I feel that another exit at J2 feeding into Roscoes Roundabout, which is more than feasible, will reduce the volume at J3 considerably.
Maybe the Highways Agency should think more about the bigger picture rather than trying to fiddle with the A34 junction. The same traffic will still be trying to merge with the A34 unless it goes another way.
I have read a number of comments regarding the tailbacks of traffic on the M60 slip road at junction 3 coming onto the A34. I believe that this sometimes backs onto the motorway at peak times. Given that I joing the slip road from the South Park Road Estate every day I am unsure how far back the queues reach but they always seem pretty hefty at peak times.
In my mind, not enough time is given at the traffic lights from the slip road onto the A34 itself (at peak times at least). Traffic coming from Didsbury on the A34 has comparatively too much time and never seems to queue like the traffic coming from the M60 slip road. When the Kingsway juntion lights are on red sometimes barely 6 cars from the M60 slip road are able to progress through the earlier traffic lights as the southbound traffic from Didsbury has taken priority.
The size of the queues from Didsbury on the southbound A34 at the new traffic lights is now totally unacceptable.The planning and management at the new traffic lights is an absolute joke. The queues recently have been almost back to Parrswood lights. All the sets of lights need to be in sync if traffic is to run smoothly, recently the pedestrian crossing was on red when the crossroad lights were on green, what a joke. Six million spent on improvements! Ha ha. Total waste.