Bottleneck will be eased by £60m dual carriageway
The long-awaited Cornwall Council scheme to dual the A30 east of Bodmin has been unveiled with three new bridges spanning the trunk road between Temple and Higher Carblake providing improved safety for motorists.
The local authority has devised a £60 million plan to dual the notorious single carriageway bottleneck which has long been an accident blackspot. The public were given their first opportunity to view the scheme when 70 people packed into Cardinham parish hall this week and backed the scheme.
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Traffic queuing on the A30 on the approach to Temple where the road becomes a single carriageway
If the road improvements are supported by the Government, the construction costs will be split between the local authority and the Treasury. The meeting was told that over long periods of the year, the present single carriageway sees more than 36,000 vehicle per day using it, which causes long delays.
The three new bridges, near Penlan Garage, Freeze Cross and Temple would improve safety for motorists accessing local villages.
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Three people have died and more than 60 have been seriously injured along the single carriageway since 2002. The scheme involves constructing two new lanes immediately next to the existing road to provide the dual carriageway, with three new junctions using the bridges for safer access onto or across the A30.
Cornwall Council has estimated the dual carriageway will eliminate congestion and cut journey delays of up to an hour that currently occur every weekend between May and October resulting in queues of up to eight miles.
Although the scheme is not in the Government funding programme, favourable noises have been coming from Westminster.
Cornwall councillor for Cardinham and Blisland, Mick Martin, who is also chairman of the Dual The A30 action group, said he was encouraged by a recent response from new Roads Minister Stephen Hammond.
"A delegation went to Westminster in the summer to discuss the scheme with the previous roads minister Mike Penning and that went very well, but he has since been replaced by Mr Hammond.
"I wrote to the new minister recently and his reply sounded very encouraging and he seemed equally supportive of scheme, and we now have to wait if the Government half of the funding will be announced in the autumn statement," said Mr Martin.
"I think the Cornwall Council design team has done a superb job on the dualling scheme, and if it goes ahead, it will make the road safer for motorists and benefit the whole of the county." The next A30 dualling presentation will be at Blisland Village Hall on Friday, October 19, at 6pm.
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