LETTER: Option 2 is best for the A27

The Chichester Bypass improvement document lacks the assumed time to drive the three miles from the entry to the Portfield roundabout to leaving the Fishbourne roundabout for the present road configuration, which is needed to judge the savings of time of up to less than six minutes.
By The Newsroom
Published 6th Aug 2016, 12:00 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 18:05 BST

At say 60mph this distance would take three minutes to cover on a road with no obstacles, yet I have taken

up to 20 or 30 minutes crawling along in first gear, using a lot of petrol and causing a lot of pollution; none of these schemes seek to solve this problem and none are worth a penny of expenditure to achieve the quoted savings.

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The concept of using traffic lights at Stockbridge and Whyke junctions was raised by me (and probably many others) to remove from some dithering drivers the need to judge when the road was clear enough before they crawled round the roundabout; but traffic lights cancel out any benefits of a properly designed A27.

As access to and egress from Chichester at Stockbridge and Whyke junctions are hindered significantly and very regularly by closed level crossing gates, I would suggest that apart from providing a left turn onto the bypass from Chichester and the Manhood Peninsula, these crossings should be eliminated, so speeding up the A27 traffic and reducing costs.

Links to Chichester would be at the Fishbourne, Bognor Road and Portfield junctions, aided by the Link Road shown in Option 2. Thus, Option 2 with the Stockbridge and Whyke crossings eliminated would meet my requirements best. I would also suggest that flow at the Portfield Junction of Option 2 would be improved by diverting the outer lane or outer two lanes of the northbound carriageway approaching the junction (depending on the usual split of traffic to the eastbound A27 and into Chichester) to follow closer to the line of the southbound carriageway and raised over the roundabout to join the eastbound A27 when convenient.

These changes should allow unfetterd passage round Chichester in about three to four minutes, a saving of up to about 25 minutes (and much reduced pollution) compared to the 20 to 30 minutes that I have experiened.

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With the elimination of the Stockbridge and Whyke crossings, these changes to Option 2 would be much more cost effective than any of the options shown in the published document.

K.W. Newby

Elm Park, Bosham

Related topics:A27