Would a relief road resolve traffic problems on the M4?

Mike Hedges - MS for Swansea East

The M4 is the major route between south Wales and London. It is important to both our economy and our movement for social reasons, but certain sections are often clogged at peak times.

I drove to Newbury and London last month which gave me an understanding of the road beyond my twice weekly journey to Cardiff and occasional journeys to other places on the M4 between the Pont Abraham service station and Newport.

The first 124 miles between London and Wales has twenty-eight junctions whilst the next seventy-eight miles in Wales has twenty-seven junctions. It is obvious that the average distance between junctions is longer in England than in Wales.

There are certain areas in Wales that have many junctions close together including seven around Newport over eleven miles. There are also five between the A48 for Port Talbot and the A48 at Briton Ferry a distance of six miles.

There are five between the A48 at east Swansea and Pontardulais a distance of nine miles.

[mid-content-banner]

Junctions

Many drivers use the M4 to travel one or two junctions to avoid using local roads. This is not a criticism of such drivers I use the M4 to go from my house to Penlan and to Birchgrove.

Is this what the M4 is for? Do we want it to be used as a local road around Swansea, Port Talbot, and Newport?

In England there are three Reading turn off within eight miles and in Bristol three junctions within nine miles.

There regularly traffic problems on the M4, as anyone who listens to radio Wales will know the three areas that have almost daily traffic problems are the M4 around Newport, M4 around Port Talbot, and the M4 around Swansea.

[lower-mid-content-banner]

Problems

Except following accidents, there are rarely traffic problems between junction thirty-eight and junction twenty-eight. This excludes queues on the slip road at junction thirty-three and on entering the roundabout at junction thirty-two.

Are there solutions to these bottle necks? It has been suggested that an M4 relief road would solve the problem around Newport. That it would do serious environmental damage to the Gwent levels is without challenge, but would it work?

Around London the M25 was created as a motorway encircling most of Greater London to solve traffic problems. The 117-mile motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest and has been described as the largest car park in the UK.

The M25 was originally built mostly as a three-lane motorway but much has since been widened to four lanes, to a five-lanes section between junctions 12 and 14 and a six-lane section between junctions 14 and 15. Twelve lanes between junction 12 and 14 is twice the size of the original road that was built.

A report in The Economist  after it was built said "it had taken 70 years to plan the motorway, 12 to build it and just one to find it was inadequate".

Traffic levels quickly exceeded the maximum design capacity. The M25 has been criticised for having too many junctions with fourteen of them serving only local roads. Drivers who only use the M25 to travel a short distance are believed by some to have less overall driving experience, exacerbating traffic and safety issues.

What has happened around the M25 is major house building including The Bowmans Cross development near junction twenty-two that could see as many as 14,000 people living there. Substantial commercial development has also been built around the M25 including at Purfleet, within half a mile of Junction 31 of the M25, that provides 343,281 sq. ft of highly specified industrial and logistics space.

It is inconceivable that such developments will not, albeit on a smaller scale, happen around any M4 relief road. The answer to M4 congestion as Edwina Hart, the former cabinet member started to address, is to reduce the number of junctions. Closing junctions is unpopular with local people who use them, and the junction closed around Port Talbot was re opened after its trial closure.

We have two options - the first is to complain about the traffic problems, the second is to act, reducing the number of junctions on the M4 and see if that speeds traffic.

Finally, when is the M4 going to be completed to Fishguard?