Widening Morlaix Drive will improve access for buses serving the hospital by creating a new more direct route from the south. This will reduce journey times and improve reliability for buses serving the hospital and wider Derriford area. This will help to encourage more people to use public transport, reducing carbon emissions and delays to all road users.
The scheme will improve access for staff and visitors to the hospital, in particular those travelling via the new Forder Valley Link Road. It will also provide improved pedestrian and cycle facilities, potentially resulting in more people choosing to travel on foot or by bike.
Brest Road can be busy at peak times of the day. When the Forder Valley Link Road opens, traffic flows in the area will change significantly. Queues are likely to increase on Brest Road, particularly heading north as more drivers try to use it as a route to Derriford Roundabout. Due to the close proximity of Morlaix Drive to Derriford Roundabout, these queues would cause significant delays and congestion, affecting local businesses, traffic (including buses) accessing the hospital via Morlaix Drive, as well as emergency vehicles.
Preventing access from Brest Road onto Derriford Roundabout routes northbound Forder Valley Link Road traffic not accessing the hospital along the recently improved William Prance Road, helping to reduce traffic on Brest Road.
Ambulances and other emergency vehicles will still be able to use the northern end of Brest Road to access Derriford Roundabout maintaining response times.
Traffic using Morlaix Drive should be going to the hospital as their destination. It is not an appropriate route for drivers trying to access other areas and is actually likely to take longer than using William Prance Road / Tavistock Road or Miller Way.
Traffic travelling to Derriford Roundabout from Brest Road or Morlaix Drive will be able to do so via William Prance Road which was recently upgraded as part of the Derriford Transport Scheme.
It is unlikely that rat-running through the hospital will be a big issue but we will monitor it and, if necessary, we will work with the hospital to prevent it from happening.
Traffic flows in the area will change in the future due to new development and the opening of the Forder Valley Link Road, as well as the improvements to Morlaix Drive. Some traffic that currently uses Derriford Road and Tavistock Road will in future use Morlaix Drive to access the Forder Valley Link Road, which will take traffic away from Derriford Roundabout and Tavistock Road. This will help offset the impact of any additional traffic on Derriford Road and William Prance Road caused by the restriction from Brest Road.
The scheme will also allow Derriford Roundabout to operate more efficiently since the traffic lights from Brest Road would only need to stop traffic on the roundabout when emergency vehicles or buses are exiting Brest Road. This will mean more ‘green time’ for other arms of the roundabout, including Derriford Road.
The junction of William Prance Road and Tavistock Road, which was improved as part of the Derriford Transport Scheme has been designed to accommodate additional traffic from William Prance Road.
The traffic lights are needed to allow traffic in and out of the hospital via Morlaix Drive as flows increase on Brest Road. They also provide the ability to introduce new controlled crossing points for pedestrians and cyclists.
We explored the option of keeping the existing priority junction or installing a mini-roundabout but the option that best handles future expected traffic is a signalised junction.
We will be working with the hospital to try to reduce this by looking at ways to improve the existing barrier system.
We expect to start on site in Spring 2020 with the scheme being complete within approximately 9 to 10 months. The specific details of traffic management during construction have not been finalised but we will be working with the hospital to minimise disruption as far as possible. We will liaise regularly with the hospital and with local businesses to keep them informed of what is happening and to understand any issues.
Ensuring any natural environment loss is more than compensated for is an important aspect of this project and we are working with the hospital to put together a landscaping scheme and mitigation strategy to ensure this happens (including beyond the hospital grounds / within the nearby local nature reserve).
Unfortunately the works do require the loss of some trees, including the line of beech trees to the south of Morlaix Drive. We looked at ways to try to avoid this, however the root zones of the trees would be damaged by any widening scheme and their removal is unavoidable. Many of the existing larger trees on Morlaix Drive have structural problems or are showing signs of decay and are vulnerable to high winds. We understand that they provide a visual amenity to staff and visitors to the hospital but are seeing this as an opportunity to create additional landscaping / habitat through improved planting and other environmental improvements. Options that we are exploring include a new arboretum or orchard, improvements within and to the entrance to the nature reserve, and improvements to the pond within the hospital grounds.