A431 temporary toll road opens

A temporary toll road linking Kelston with Bath in Somerset, UK, has opened. Local businessman Mike Watts set up Kelston toll Road Limited to build the 400 metre road, enabling traffic to negotiate the A431 Kelston Road, which has been closed since February because of a landslide. It has cost Kelston Toll Road £150,000 to build the road and Mr Watts estimates it will cost another £150,000 to run the toll road for five months. He plans to charge motorists £2 each way to use the road, which will need to attra
August 4, 2014 Read time: 3 mins

A temporary toll road linking Kelston with Bath in Somerset, UK, has opened.

Local businessman Mike Watts set up Kelston toll Road Limited to build the 400 metre road, enabling traffic to negotiate the A431 Kelston Road, which has been closed since February because of a landslide. It has cost Kelston Toll Road £150,000 to build the road and Mr Watts estimates it will cost another £150,000 to run the toll road for five months. He plans to charge motorists £2 each way to use the road, which will need to attract 1,000 cars a day if it is to break even.

Thought to be the first private road in the UK for 100 years, the road was built in just three days to avoid the hour-long diversion around the roadworks on the key route between Bristol and Bath.

Mr Watts told newspapers: “Building a toll road isn’t easy to do – this is the first private road in Britain for 100 years. I think people are very grateful that we have taken this risk.”

Bath and North East Somerset Council predict the section of the A431 will be open again by Christmas and has launched an investigation into the toll road, claiming it does not have planning permission and could be dangerous.

In a statement, the council said: “This remains an active landslide, which could move without warning. In the absence of any information from the toll road promoters the council has concerns about the impact of traffic loading on the land above the slip.

“The council is not in a position to support the temporary road option as we have not been provided with any evidence/information to support the application. A temporary toll road requires planning permission and no application has been received.

“In view of public concerns the council’s planning enforcement team are currently investigating this matter. The council has no details to confirm the toll road design meets safety standards and no evidence that insurances are in place for any member of the public who use the private toll road.”

The council added that it had considered a bypass road on the south side of the closure, where it would not increase loading above the landslip, but this was not viable.

Enforcement

Related Content

  • Aberdeen and Zagreb win EU sustainable mobility awards
    March 12, 2013
    The European Commission has announced the winners of the 2012 Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) Award and the European Mobility Week (EMW) Award. Aberdeen and Zagreb were presented with their awards by European Commissioners Siim Kallas and Janez Potočnik at a joint award ceremony in Brussels, Belgium on 6 March. Aberdeen took the top honour in the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans Award ahead of two other finalists, Ljutomer, Slovenia and Toulouse, France. Aberdeen is a city of around 220,000 inhabita
    Read More
  • Taking the long term view to toll safety, adopting new technology
    July 17, 2012
    OmniAir's Tim McGuckin takes a look at what happens when a tolling authority makes safety its principal operating criterion. The bottom - line effects, he says, are not as onerous as one might think. Replacing an existing 915MHz-based Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system with a new 915MHz system for toll collection is - from a technology standpoint - comparable to trading in your 1999 high-mileage Buick for another 1999 Buick with '0' on the odometer.
    Read More
  • Anywhere card delivers prepaid contactless ticketing
    January 25, 2012
    David Crawford investigates a far reaching initiative in integrated travel. The Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), an operator of high speed commuter rail in the north eastern US, is not one of the world's best known transit providers. Its 13 stations along a single east-west route (three of them interchanges with other regional commuter lines) handle 40,000 passengers a day, travelling to and from Philadelphia, the US' fifth most populous city.
    Read More
  • Safer roads need safe systems approach, better infrastructure
    January 19, 2012
    Some developed countries are far from leading the way when it comes to making road infrastructure safe. In fact, says the Road Safety Foundation's Joanne Hill, they learn a lot from what is happening in emergent nations. A new report from the Road Safety Foundation, 'Saving Lives, Saving Money - the costs and benefits of achieving safe roads', makes some startling assertions about attitudes to road safety. Although concerned predominantly with the UK, there are some universal lessons to be learned, accordin
    Read More

Highlighted Content