£100,000 announced for initial A48 road safety measures

Bridgend County Borough Council has received £100,000 from Welsh Government to spend on road safety improvements along the A48 between Laleston and Waterton.

The funding must be spent before 1 April and has become available following underspends on other projects that have taken place around the country.

Although the council is currently submitting a bid that will enable it to implement the road safety improvements in full, the Welsh Government placed the A48 scheme on a reserve list late last year in case funds became available in the meantime.

Proposed improvements include new pedestrian refuges at key points along the route, resurfaced footpaths, extended footway links, and new signage and road markings.

The funding will be used for the formal design of the improvements as well as some contractual preparations, advance undergrowth clearance, and a review of the speed limits between the Ewenny and Broadlands roundabouts.

The proposals have been drawn up after the council commissioned an independent report following a number of collisions along the route. This stated that the route ‘generally benefits from good forward visibility with an average carriageway width of 10m’, and found evidence of:

• 32 collisions between 2011 and 2015.
• Five of the 32 accidents occurred on the eastbound approach to the Broadlands roundabout.
• 10 took place between the Merthyr Mawr Road and Island Farm Road junctions.
• Three occurred between the Ewenny roundabout and Hernston Lane junction.
• Five were west of the retail park roundabout.
• Half of all collisions involved a ‘read-end shunt’ between vehicles.
• Nine per cent of the collisions were between vehicles and pedestrians.
• Three of the collisions were classed as ‘fatal’, seven as ‘serious’ and 22 as ‘slight’.
• The accidents accounted for an above-average casualty severity ratio of 23 per cent, but collision rates were less than the national average for corresponding types of road.
• Nine of the 32 collisions occurred at night, and six during wet weather.
• Alcohol, driver error and illegal manoeuvres also figured prominently.

We are grateful to Welsh Government for supplying us with this funding so we can make a start on introducing initial improvements.

This is a very busy, well-used stretch of road, and we are hopeful that our bid for full funding will be approved so that we can introduce a full range of safety measures.

Councillor Richard Young, Cabinet Member for Communities.