Missed opportunity in major transformation of Nottingham roundabout
Work began in spring 2024 to turn the now-demolished large roundabout on Maid Marian Way, which connected the key city centre routes of Derby Road and Lower Parliament Street in Nottingham city centre, into a T-junction. The work caused chaos at points due to severe delays, with the city council being forced to apologise in October 2024.
The last phase of the work is currently under way, but Trentbarton's managing director says the changes could have been more radical. Tom Morgan said: "We have to accept that in order for things to get better, there has to be disruption at certain times.
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"We're really hopeful that when all the works are done, that trunk road into Nottingham does work more efficiently. We'd definitely like to have seen them take the opportunity to improve bus priority measures through those junctions, which I think they could have gone further with.
"We'd have liked to see more priority through the Upper Parliament Street/Maid Marian Way junction going out of the city and down at the bottom of Tollhouse Hill coming into the city. I also accept that green spaces are good and we don't want our cities to be covered in tarmac, so it's just getting the balance right."
Nottingham City Council was approached for comment but did not want to give a statement on whether they could have done more upgrades to prioritise buses. Speaking about the disruption during the work so far, Mr Morgan said: "Whilst the works have been going on, it's been so tough for our customers, our drivers, and our operational teams trying to keep things going and and then also communicating out to customers.
"We've seen quite significant drops in usage during the course of the works on our Nottingham-based services. At times of disruption, inevitably people get back in their car because they have the flexibility to avoid certain pinch points like Maid Marian Way.
"We always try and say to the authorities when there are big highway schemes they should be prioritising public transport through those roadworks to encourage people to move on to what is the most efficient form of transport. That's quite tough because there is a strong car lobby."
All the work to Maid Marian Way so far has been focused on its northern end and funded by £9 million from a government fund. The coming years will then see its southern end transformed thanks to the wider development of the Broad Marsh.
Nottingham City Council recently confirmed it will spend half a million pounds on a study looking into whether Maid Marian Way could be straightened out at the southern end to the junction with Canal Street. The remains of the historic Greyfriar Gate could end up disappearing and the pedestrianised Collin Street could then be extended right up to Maid Marian Way.
The possibilities have been opened up by confirmation that NCP's Maid Marian Way Car Park will be demolished as part of the Broad Marsh development. Maid Marian Way was initially built as a single-carriageway route and efforts to widen it into a dual carriageway began in the 1960s.
The remaining work on the northern end will now see improvements to the public realm, including wide Portuguese-slabbed pavements with benches and dozens of trees and shrubbery. Nottingham City Transport confirmed the latest improvements began on April 22 and that one lane on Upper Parliament Street will be closed for five weeks during the work.
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