FFerr A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Option Assessment Report March 2016 A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Option Assessment Report A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Project no: B2074900 Document title: Option Assessment Report Document No.: B2074900/A6S/JAC/A428/XX/RP/PM/00025 Revision: 0 Date: 17 March 2016 Client name: Highways England Client no: Project manager: Simon Beaney Author: Robert Benson Jacobs U.K. Limited 1180 Eskdale Road Winnersh, Wokingham Reading RG41 5TU United Kingdom T +44 (0)118 946 7000 F +44 (0)118 946 7001 www.jacobs.com © Copyright 2016 Jacobs U.K. Limited. The concepts and information contained in this document are the property of Jacobs. Use or copying of this document in whole or in part without the written permission of Jacobs constitutes an infringement of copyright. Limitation: This report has been prepared on behalf of, and for the exclusive use of Jacobs’ Client, and is subject to, and issued in accordance with, the provisions of the contract between Jacobs and the Client. Jacobs accepts no liability or responsibility whatsoever for, or in respect of, any use of, or reliance upon, this report by any third party. Document history and status Revision Date Description By Review Approved 0 29/01/2016 Draft for client review RB SM/DW SB 1 17/03/2016 Final RB TB SB B2074900/A6S/JAC/A428/XX/RP/PM/00025 i A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Option Assessment Report Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Purpose of report ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background ................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.3 Overview of assessment ............................................................................................................................. 2 1.4 Structure of report ........................................................................................................................................ 4 2. Policy and literature review ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 6 2.2 National policy ............................................................................................................................................. 7 2.3 Regional and local policy and guidance ...................................................................................................... 8 2.4 Recent studies and consultation ............................................................................................................... 10 3. Current situation ...................................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 12 3.2 Land use and demographics ..................................................................................................................... 12 3.3 Transport network ...................................................................................................................................... 17 3.4 Route performance .................................................................................................................................... 20 3.5 Environment .............................................................................................................................................. 33 3.6 Constraints and opportunities .................................................................................................................... 36 4. Future situation ....................................................................................................................................... 38 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 38 4.2 Planned growth and infrastructure changes .............................................................................................. 38 4.3 Forecasting and scenario development .................................................................................................... 41 4.4 Future route performance .......................................................................................................................... 42 4.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................................... 45 5. Need for intervention .............................................................................................................................. 46 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 46 5.2 Current and future transport related problems .......................................................................................... 46 5.3 Impacts of not changing ............................................................................................................................ 46 5.4 Underlying drivers or causes ..................................................................................................................... 47 6. Objectives and area of impact ............................................................................................................... 48 6.1 Objectives .................................................................................................................................................. 48 6.2 Targets ...................................................................................................................................................... 48 6.3 Geographic area of impact ........................................................................................................................ 50 7. Option generation .................................................................................................................................... 51 7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 51 7.2 Benchmarking and research ..................................................................................................................... 51 7.3 Option generation ...................................................................................................................................... 52 8. Option sifting ........................................................................................................................................... 53 8.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 53 8.2 Stage one: initial sift .................................................................................................................................. 53 8.3 Stage two: early assessment and sifting process ..................................................................................... 55 8.4 Shortlisted options ..................................................................................................................................... 56 B2074900/A6S/JAC/A428/XX/RP/PM/00025 ii A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Option Assessment Report 9. Option assessment ................................................................................................................................. 57 9.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 57 9.2 Assessment methodology ......................................................................................................................... 57 9.3 Appraisal results ........................................................................................................................................ 59 9.4 Preferred option ......................................................................................................................................... 62 10. Summary and next steps ........................................................................................................................ 64 10.1 Summary ................................................................................................................................................... 64 10.2 Next steps .................................................................................................................................................. 66 11. Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 67 Appendix A. Glossary Appendix B. A14 Traffic model assessment Appendix C. Capacity Analysis Appendix D. Buffer Index as a measure of journey time reliability Appendix E. Environmental Constraints