TrustNews Mar 22

M3 Developments

Richard Baker reports

 

 

Junction 9

 

In July 2019, Highways England, now National Highways, consulted on an improvement scheme for junction 9 of the M3 at Winnall. The junction of the M3 with the A33/34, A272 and Easton Lane is used by approximately 110,000 vehicles a day, and is not able to cope with this volume of traffic.

 

In order to improve safety and accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders and to reduce congestion, it was proposed that traffic between the M3 and the A33/A34 use free flowing links, and that the M3 be widened from two to four lane between the south facing roundabout slips and the free flowing links. New subways would be provided and traffic lights would be removed.

 

Feedback in 2021 from the consultation raised concerns about the distance available for vehicles to change lanes when joining the A34 from junction 9 and then heading to the A33 Kings Worthy, the traffic capacity of the proposed scheme and the length of the construction period.

 

 

Proposals were made for new highway and roundabout design to introduce better ?ow between the M3 and the A34, with a small amount of additional land to build the revised scheme. People who have a legal interest in this land were consulted in Nov/Dec 2021. Following this consultation, the Trust has been advised that the areas of additional land required have been amended.

 

Smart motorway, Junctions 9 to 14

 

 

As part of the Government's programme for smart motorways, work started in August 2021 on installing temporary CCTV cameras on the M3 between junction 9 (Winnall) and junction 14 (Chilworth interchange).

 

At the same time, construction of a contractor s compound started on land off Badger Farm Road, to provide hard standing areas for containers, materials, car parking, lighting and a base for breakdown recovery equipment.

 

 

Initially many residents thought that this work might be related to the proposed Royaldown new town project, before learning that the compound was to enable the removal of hard shoulders and widen the M3 between junctions 9 and 14, at a cost of 139m, for completion in 2023-24.

 

In November 2021 National Highways announced that it had halted work on its M3 smart motorway plans, following the Transport Select Committee's call for a pause in the roll out of this controversial road design.