Branston Road High School Transport Assessment COSTCEL1038 /001 Revision FINAL December 2015 Document Control Sheet Project Name: Transport Assessment Project Number: COSTCEL1038 Report Title: Branston Road High School Report Number: 001 Issue Prepared Reviewed Approved Status/Amendment Name: Lewis McAuliffe Name: Shaun Moore Name: Chris Barker Signature: Signature: Signature: 001 Date: 23/12/2015 Date: 23/12/2015 Date: 23/12/2015 Name: Name: Name: Signature: Signature: Signature: Date: Date: Date: Name: Name: Name: Signature: Signature: Signature: Date: Date: Date: Name: Name: Name: Signature: Signature: Signature: Date: Date: Date: Project Name Transport Assessment Document Title Branston Road High School Executive Summary Amey have been commissioned by Entrust on behalf of Staffordshire County Council (SCC) to undertake a Transport Assessment in support of a planning application for a new 8 form entry secondary educational development on land off Branston Road near Tatenhill, East Staffordshire. The proposed development, known as Branston Road High School (BRHS) will cater for both secondary and sixth form students and is estimated to open for use in 2018, with full occupancy anticipated by 2022, whereby the school will have 1440 student places and 182 members of staff. Consideration has been given to both local and national policy in line with the BRHS development, with particular reference to the East Staffordshire Borough Council Local Plan 2012 – 2031, where its conclusion marks the end of our Future Year assessment scenario. The existing sustainable transport provisions are detailed, together with the proposed expansion and significant improvement of infrastructure to further promote sustainable modes of travel to and from the BRHS development. Existing ‘baseline’ traffic conditions on the local highway network have been assessed against the predicted future traffic levels that will be generated by the proposed BRHS development, with the addition of vehicle trips associated with proposed committed developments in the area which have been given planning consent. Local junction modelling has been carried out in order to assess the traffic impacts of the proposed development; evaluating the impacts of the additional vehicular trips on capacity, queuing and delay at both existing and proposed junctions. The operational capacity of each of the existing and proposed junctions adjoining the proposed BRHS development site have been assessed in the: 2018 Opening Year, 2022 Interim Year when the school will be fully occupied and; 2031 Future Year scenarios, respectively. The 2015 Base Year scenario has only been used to assess the existing junctions. As a result of the modelling assessments, some junctions are showing a level of queuing. A contributory factor to the queueing shown in the assessment results is that the spine road which serves the Lawns Farm development is only partially constructed in the Interim Year 2022. Due to this, the vehicles to the north of the Lawns Farm development will egress the site from the south exclusively and subsequently migrate north, which will in turn cause junctions to the south to experience greater traffic volumes fed by the southbound traffic movement, including the junctions along Branston Road. In the 2031 Future Year, the Lawns Farm development spine road is fully constructed and operational and therefore queuing and delay is reduced. Doc. Ref.:COSTCEL1038 /001 Rev. FINAL - i - Issued: December 2015 Project Name Transport Assessment Document Title Branston Road High School The PM assessments have been undertaken on a ‘worst case’ scenario with the afternoon school trips being modelled within the recognised PM peak of 17:00 to 18:00. Realistically the majority of these trips will take place before the PM peak starts, within the inter-peak and as such, a more robust assessment has been undertaken. It is the view that in reality these particular junctions will operate within capacity. One of the junctions demonstrating a level of queuing is the A38 Branston Interchange / A5121 Wellington Road / B5018. When all of the highway infrastructure proposals (that have been identified as part of other committed developments) have been implemented on the A38 Roundabout, including the provision of traffic signals, all signal movements between the A38 Roundabout and the A5121 Wellington Road / B5018 junction will operate and co-ordinate via Microprocessor Optimised Vehicle Actuation (MOVA) traffic signal control. Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) / Department for Transport (DFT) trials have shown that MOVA reduces delays by an average of 13% compared to a standard Vehicle Actuation (Traffic Advisory Leaflet 3/97). The addition of MOVA control at both junctions will subsequently reduce much of the queueing present at this junction. Measures to mitigate forecast traffic issues and promote the use of sustainable travel have been included in the accompanying Framework Travel Plan (TP) document and include a detailed strategy incorporating the phased introduction of high quality walking and cycling measures/infrastructure. Ongoing assessment in this regard will be overseen by the Travel Plan Co-ordinator in association with relevant Parish Councils, Local Authorities and residents associations. Further to this improved infrastructure to assist walking and cycling will be implemented in the form of a shared use cycle/footway allowing sustainable non-motorised vehicle movement to and from the site, improving safety and connectivity to BRHS. To conclude, investigations into the effect of the BRHS traffic in conjunction with the committed development traffic shows that there is an impact on the local highway network. However, by providing proposed highway mitigation measures in key locations, coupled with planned infrastructure improvements to encourage sustainable transport, the local highway network will continue to operate within capacity. Doc. Ref.:COSTCEL1038 /001 Rev. FINAL - ii - Issued: December 2015 Project Name Transport Assessment Document Title Branston Road High School Contents 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Scope of the Study ..................................................................................................... 1 2 Policy Considerations ......................................................................................... 3 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 3 2.2 National Policy ........................................................................................................... 3 2.3 Local Policy ............................................................................................................... 4 3 National Transport Initiatives .......................................................................... 10 3.1 Sustainable Transport Initiatives ............................................................................... 10 4 Site Location and Surrounding Highway Network ........................................... 11 4.1 Site Location ........................................................................................................... 11 4.2 Surrounding Highway Network .................................................................................. 13 4.3 Collision Data .......................................................................................................... 14 5 Sustainable Transport Audit ............................................................................. 26 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 26 5.2 Accessibility for Pedestrians ...................................................................................... 26 5.3 Accessibility for Cyclists ............................................................................................ 28 5.4 Accessibility by Bus .................................................................................................. 29 5.5 Accessibility by Rail .................................................................................................. 31 5.6 Summary ................................................................................................................ 31 6 Data Collection ................................................................................................. 33 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 33 6.2 Surveyed Traffic Data ............................................................................................... 33 6.3 Existing Traffic Data ................................................................................................. 34 7 Proposed Development .................................................................................... 35 7.1 Branston Road High School ....................................................................................... 35 7.2 Parking Provisions .................................................................................................... 35 7.3 Parking Standards .................................................................................................... 35 7.4 Conclusion..............................................................................................................