Current situation
In the current financial climate there is no scope for funding the Shrewsbury North West Relief Road. However, we are considering a number of alternative, affordable measures to keep the town moving well into the future. Please follow the link to 'Shrewsbury North West Relief Road' to view these.
The route
A number of possible alignments for a north-west relief route were explored, and six feasible options were assessed in more detail. These route options are shown on the attached map.
A traffic model of Shrewsbury was developed and used to identify the changes to traffic levels that could be expected with each road option.
The assessment also included a detailed analysis of environmental impacts, including:
- noise
- air quality
- greenhouse gases
- landscape
- townscape
- heritage - archaeology
- heritage - built
- biodiversity
- water environment
- agriculture and soils
- physical fitness and accessibility
- journey ambience
- integration
The road options were subject to a formal cost-benefit analysis which compared construction costs with journey-time, vehicle-operating and accident benefits. The economic benefits of all the presented options were found to be greater than the construction costs.
The initial assessment also considered a number of alternative ways in which traffic relief may be achieved. The level of traffic reduction which could be achieved by introducing each of the following measures has been considered:
- improvements to the walking network
- improvements to the cycling network
- a new light rail or guided bus system
- improvements to rail
- improvements to bus use
- improvements to Park & Ride
- traffic management measures
- demand management measures, such as parking controls and road user charging
A copy of the Route Study report can be viewed or downloaded by opening the attachment on this page.
Narrowing down the route option
After consultation, we narrowed down the route options from six to three - the "outer routes" which were clearly more acceptable to people. The three outer routes all connected the A5 at Churncote with the A528 Ellesmere Road and A5124 Battlefield Link Road, but followed slightly different alignments. Cabinet agreed that further work should be done on these 'outer' routes to identify a single preferred route. A particular objective was to deal with some of the environmental concerns identified during the scheme review.
Selection of a preferred route
In January 2007, the council's cabinet selected a single preferred route for the North West Relief Road. For information about the preferred route and how it has been developed, please see the document attached to this page.
In December 2007, minor amendments were agreed to the preferred route by council. Please see the link for a map of this route.