Britannia Bridge and active traffic managment.

On Monday I crossed Britannia Bridge on my annual trip into the heart of Gwynedd.  Now, we are told that  Britannia Bridge cannot cope with peak traffic flows and that a second crossing is needed,  which some claim was to be  funded by 'Wylfa B'. You know that magical funding pot that politicians on Anglesey have been praying was the answer for all the islands problems.

Take the A5025 which is slowly falling to bits, don't worry was the answer  - 'Wylfa B' will pay for all the improvements. My advice take care, as many lengths of the A5025 are in desperate need of resurfacing, due to low skid resistance -  you will notice far more 'slippery road' warning signs up these days.

Or when schools need to cut back on staff as there was not enough children coming to the school, some Councillors suggested we should wait as Wylfa B would bring many families into the island and their children would need to be educated.

A stock answer it seems - don't worry 'Wylfa B' will pay for it.

But 'Wylfa B' will not now happen for many years, and if there is no 'public subsidy' to guarantee electricity  prices to make investors money may never happen.

Therefore, with poor odds of 'Wylfa B'  ever being built, you might as well as forget about a second crossing. I wouldn't think it carries enough traffic to attract other private investors, and we have no public money, so we are told.

Which brings me back to my trip to Gwynedd this morning.  Williams Hughes Civil Engineering were carrying out essential works on the approach to the bridge, and for the safety of its workers had a 30 mph speed limit in place -  the result when I went past no queues.

Which supports my view that what we require on both of the approaches to Britannia Bridge are variable speed limits and active traffic management as trialled on the  M42. This together with enforced average speed limits would in my opinion significantly reduce occurrences of peak hour queuing on the bridge.

Improvements to A5025 between Valley and Amlwch

This week residents whom may be affected by proposed improvements to the A5025, as part of Wylfa B have been written to by Alan Smith, Head of Site Development at Horizon. The text of the letter is self explanatory and is as below:

"Dear Sir/Madam

Potential route improvements to the A5025 between Valley and the proposed site for a new nuclear power station at Wylfa

In November 2011 we wrote to landowners along the route of the A5025 between Valley and Amlwch to outline our approach to considering what road improvements may be needed to support the construction and operation of a new nuclear power station at Wylfa.

I am now writing to all residents living between Valley and our proposed development site to provide our early thoughts on where we believe route improvements may be needed in these areas, ahead of us presenting more detailed options formally to you as part of our first phase of community consultation in the next few months.

Through our work with the Isle of Anglesey County Council Highways Authority and our environmental consultants. Mott MacDonald we're looking at the following areas for possible route improvements:

• The Valley crossroad - where the crossroads may need to be bypassed
• Llanfachraeth - where a bypass to the east of the village is being considered
• Llanfaethlu - where the bends at the Black Lion Inn and Llanfaethlu may need to be straightened
• Cefn Coch - where the existing route between Bod-Hedd and Cefn Coch may need to be straightened
• Tregele - where modifications to the site access at Tregele as well as potential changes to the access to Cemlyn may need to be considered.

We have started talking privately to landowners that may be directly affected by any potential changes to the A5025 in those areas prior to developing our options further. These are early stage discussions and we have not developed any firm proposals at this stage.

Its our intention to talk to everyone who we believe may be directly affected by any potential road improvements as part of our project and, in the coming months, will present draft proposals to the public as part of our first phase of formal consultation. We will hold public exhibitions across Anglesey and North Wales where you will be able to view our proposals and give us your feedback. Additionally, we may hold mini consultations specifically on proposals relating to the A5025 as we want to give local people every opportunity to have a say on our proposals.

While dates and locations of our consultation events have yet to be announced, but we will advertise them widely in the media, through our newsletter to every home on the island, and via the Isle of Anglesey County Council.

You can also register for updates on our consultation process at consultation.horizonnuclearpower.com

While we tried to ensure this letter is sent to all residents along the route of the A5025 from Valley to the proposed construction site, if you are aware of anyone that has not received this letter, please let us know.

You can contact us via our freephone hotline on 0800 954 9516 or email address at wylfaenquiries@horizonnuclearpower.com

The next stage of our work will be to consider what road improvements may be needed along the A5025 from the proposed construction site to Amlwch and we will keep residents in those areas up to date on our early proposals."

Further information about Horizon Nuclear Power can be found on their website horizonnuclearpower.com/wylfa

(Note: letter from Horizon scanned using text recognition software, and may not reflect the layout of the original letter. Any spelling mistakes most likely to be mine and my typing skills. A letter in welsh was also sent by Horizon.)

Topographical survey of A5025 well advanced.

A question regularly asked by many on the island is how much of the A5025 will Horizon improve as part of the Wylfa B development.

For those of you who regularly travel on the A5025 between Valley and Wylfa may have recently noticed  luminous orange tape at regular intervals, say on hedges or on gateposts. They are there to quickly identify the locations of survey stations.

It seems Horizon are carrying out a topographical survey of the A5205, or key sections at least. And how do I know it's Horizon, because one of the vans assisting the survey firm has a sign saying they are from Horizon -'simples'.

No doubt any major improvements proposed for the A5025; as part of Wylfa B, will form part of  a detailed planning application when submitted.

The A5025 needs improving

The A5025 is an essential highway link for the island, it is a holiday route giving access to some excellent resorts and a daily commuter route.

Over the years sections of the A5025 have been improved, some where carried out when Wylfa A was built, other sections may be improved in conjunction with Wylfa B i.e Llanfachraeth bypass.

Even then far too many road accidents on the A5025 have meant death. The Police and the Council’s Road Safety team would have investigated each tragic death. They will have made recommendations on road safety improvements required. The report of the coroner would also have been taken into account.

As a minimum road safety measures would have been put in place i.e. additional signs, changes to the road surface or reducing the speed limit on the substandard section of road.

Whilst a minimalist approach to road safety may reduce the risk of one type of accident, they are never the answer in the long term. Reducing the risk of an accident brought about by one set of circumstances may sadly increase the chances of another type of accident. This is known as the law of unintended consequences.

In the long term the only real answer is for the A5025 to be improved to meet current standards, and there are very good reasons why, here are just three:

• To make the road safer and reduce needless lives being lost.


• To provide better access to Amlwch, a poor area on the island in need of jobs.


• To provide quicker emergency response times for emergency vehicles.

However all things costs money, and we haven’t got much of it left in the pot we are told.

But sometimes it makes sense to borrow to invest in the future, because of the potential number of lives saved, the economic investment that could be brought about following a infrastructure improvement, and not forgetting the jobs it would support, albeit in the short term, whilst the highway works are carried out.

I trust all candidates standing for the Anglesey constituency at the Welsh Assembly will make the improvement of the A5025 one of their priorities.