Shrewsbury North West Relief Road background and scheme history

Current situation
High levels of traffic on routes in and out of Shrewsbury town centre result in environmental problems, safety issues, congestion, and delays to goods and people. Problems are particularly acute on routes linking the north and west of the town via the town centre.

For the past 20 years or so, the idea of building a Shrewsbury North West Relief Road (NWRR) has previously been considered as a possible solution to some of these transport problems. During this time, various possible routes have been looked at. The scheme is referred to in the County Structure Plan and the Shrewsbury and Atcham Local Plan.

Detailed assessment
The County Council made a commitment to review the North West Relief Road (NWRR) proposal during the first Local Transport Plan period 2001/02 - 2005/06. This review, which began with an initial public consultation in January 2003 looked at the benefits and impacts of a number of NWRR route options and of alternative solutions that do not involve construction of a new road.

Options considered
A number of possible alignments for a NWRR 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
• 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.

Public consultation
The County Council undertook a major consultation exercise in 2005 on possible options for a North West Relief Road. The results of this consultation were reported to cabinet on 7 February 2005. A copy of the cabinet report can be viewed and downloaded on this page. A more detailed report on the consultation can also be viewed and downloaded (the two maps from Appendix 5 are attached separately as they are large files and will take longer to download).

Narrowing down the route option
After consultation, the County Council 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 County Council cabinet selected a single preferred route for the North West Relief Road. For information about the preferred route and how has been developed, please see the attached document on this page.

In January 2008 the County Council cabinet decided to develop the Shrewsbury North West Relief Road as a priority within the Local Transport Plan 2006 - 2011. To find out more about this decision and to view the report on which this decision was made, follow the link on this page.

Further consultation will take place before any kind of decision is taken about the NWRR.