A47 Wansford to Sutton Dualling - Statutory Consultation

Overview

This consultation has now closed. Please visit the scheme webpage for further information and updates on the scheme.

We are consulting on our proposal to upgrade the A47 between Wansford and Sutton. Our proposals will create a new dual carriageway that will relieve congestion, provide extra road space, improve safety and help provide a free-flowing network.

This statutory consultation, being held in accordance with the Planning Act 2008, follows on from a previous consultation held on this scheme in March 2017 and our selection of the preferred route which we announced in August 2017.

This statutory consultation is an opportunity to express your views on the design of the proposed scheme in advance of our application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) to authorise construction.
A DCO is a type of planning application, which is needed for a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP).

Following the submission of the DCO application, the Planning Inspectorate will hold a public examination of the application before making a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport who will decide whether or not the project scheme should go ahead.

Further information about the Planning Act 2008 process and DCOs can be found on the National Infrastructure Planning website.

Businesses, local authorities, public bodies, road users and the communities and neighboring areas can play an important part in the development of the scheme design.

Your feedback is therefore essential to this consultation as it will enable us to improve the scheme before we submit an application for the project.

How to get involved

You can use the following methods to respond this consultation:

• Online:
  
  Follow the link below to the online response form.
   
• Email us directly:
  
  A47WansfordtoSuttonRIS@highwaysengland.co.uk
   
• Write to us directly:
  
  Freepost A47 Wansford to Sutton

To allow us time to collect and assess all responses to this consultation before finalising our DCO application, please ensure your response reaches us by 11.59pm on Monday 12 November 2018.

All of the consultation information is available on this webpage, including a brochure with a summary of the proposed route.

We are also holding public consultation events, where you can see information about the proposed scheme and meet with members of the project team:

Consultation material will also be available to view from Tuesday 18 September until Monday 12th November at the following public locations:
 

Background

The A47 trunk road forms part of the strategic road network and provides for a variety of local, medium and long distance trips between the A1 and the east coast. The corridor connects the cities of Norwich and Peterborough, the towns of Wisbech, Kings Lynn, Dereham, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft and a succession of villages in what is largely a rural area.

In 2014 the government published the Road Investment Strategy. This includes a package of 6 schemes to improve journeys on the 115 mile section of the A47 between Peterborough and Great Yarmouth. Together, the proposals will relieve congestion and improve the reliability of journey times for drivers.

The proposals include converting almost 8 miles of single carriageway to dual carriageway and making improvements to junctions across the route. The 6 schemes are:

• A47 Wansford to Sutton dualling
   
• A47 Guyhirn junction improvement
   
• A47 North Tuddenham to Easton dualling
   
• A47 Blofield to North Burlingham dualling
   
• A47/A11 Thickthorn junction improvement
   
• A47 Great Yarmouth junction improvements

Need for the scheme

The Wansford to Sutton section of the A47 is approximatively 1.6 miles long, located to the west of Peterborough, between the existing junction with the A1 and the Nene Way roundabout near Sutton.

Whilst around half of the A47 on the strategic road network is already built to dual-carriageway standard, the Wansford to Sutton section is not, and studies have identified that the single-carriageway section of the road is no longer suitable. This single-carriageway section, of the A47 acts as a bottleneck, and this causes congestion, resulting in longer and unreliable journey times. In addition this section of the A47 has a poor safety record.

There are a number of reasons for these problems:

• sub-standard conditions on the existing single-carriageway
   
• difficulty of accessing and crossing the A47 from the local roads development in the wider area has caused traffic levels to outgrow road capacity, causing delays
   
• limited opportunities for overtaking slower vehicles

Delays are forecast to worsen in future years if the issues on this section of the A47 aren’t addressed. We aim to improve these conditions by upgrading the Wansford to Sutton section of the A47 to a dual-carriageway that can provide better capacity for traffic.
 

Fly-through video

Please see the below video for a visual fly-through of the proposed scheme.