Pear Tree to get new relief road

5:28am Friday 9th May 2008

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A new relief road at Pear Tree looks set to be included in an £88m package of transport improvements to ease congestion on Oxford's clogged roads.

The link road would connect the A40 and A44 to take traffic away from the Wolvercote roundabout and roads north of the city.

It is just one of the options now being looked at by county highways planners, who are investigating a multi-million-pound raft of measures to improve main routes into Oxford.

With the idea of turning the A34 into a three lane motorway ruled out, it has emerged County Hall is focusing on major ring road junctions, north and south of the city.

The idea of a new link road near Pear Tree has been raised before.

But County Hall says the scheme could now be achieved thanks to a £62m allocation from the Regional Transport Board towards the Access to Oxford scheme.

Daniel Round, principal transport planner for Access to Oxford, said: "The difference is there is now a great deal of funding available.

"We are wiping the slate clean and going back to the drawing board.

"There is potential at Pear Tree to put a link road in, to create a large one-way gyratory system."

The Oxford Mail understands the link road would be built across a field behind the BMW garage near Wolvercote Roundabout to create a new route between the A40 and A44.

Transport chiefs are also looking to see how access to Oxford could be improved at all three junctions north of the city at Pear Tree, Wolvercote and Banbury Road.

It is also investigating improvements to the south of the city at Heyford Hill, Kennington and Hinksey Interchange.

County councillor Ian Hudspeth, cabinet member for transport, said: "Traffic crawls up from Pear Tree to Wolvercote - it is a particularly bad bottleneck.

"The link road would be quite short, but it could greatly relieve pressure on the Wolvercote roundabout with a beneficial knock-on effect for A40 users.

"I'm sure some people would have wanted to see a bigger scheme with a road linking the A40 to the A34.

"But we couldn't do that without the co-operation of the Highways Authority."

Meanwhile, plans for electronic road signs - offering motorists live information - are set to be approved on May 20.

When the signs are installed, they will give motorists advanced warning of roadworks, congestion accidents and tell drivers when the city's park-and-rides or car parks are full.

The variable message signs on the key approaches to Oxford will cost £500,000 and will be sited at Yarnton, Eynsham, Wolvercote, Sandford, Cumnor and the A40 next year