Council chiefs have scrapped plans for a series of controversial throughabouts and other big changes to junctions on the A4174 Avon Ring Road.South Gloucestershire Council temporarily put the brakes on the £30million proposals a year ago amid huge opposition and fears the new layouts were dangerous.
Authority leaders said at the time they were postponing a bid for government money for the alterations to five roundabouts on the dual carriageway, three of which would have been turned into throughabouts, and would review the situation in a year. Now they have decided to abandon the plans, insisting there has been a “significant reduction” in delays on the ring road since they were first drawn up in 2018.
Council bosses also say the £6.9million A4174 Wraxall Road throughabout, which was completed just weeks before the wider changes were halted, has had a “positive impact”, but it would appear not enough to justify remodelling three other roundabouts similarly. They say the work is now not needed because both northbound and southbound ring road traffic at morning and afternoon peak times dropped by up to 14 per cent between 2018 and 2022 as travel patterns changed following the covid pandemic.
