Bus lane plan to improve journey times between Mansfield and Nottingham

Plans to improve the ‘heavily congested’ A60 corridor between Mansfield and Nottingham will see new bus lanes created without being ‘detrimental’ to journey times for car drivers, council documents state.

The new bus lanes will be installed at three ‘pinch points’ along the busy road, including close to the roundabout junction with the A614 Ollerton Road, where large queues form during rush hours.

It comes as part of funding from the Government’s Transforming Cities Fund, in which Nottingham and Derby have been awarded £161 million to reduce carbon and improve air quality across the region.

Now Nottinghamshire Council has revealed its multi-million-pound plan to reduce congestion and improve traffic issues on the A60, one of the county’s busiest roads at peak times.

The authority says it will improve travel times at the busy section near Arnold and Redhill heading into Nottingham, where journey times for motorists have been on a gradual increase.

Figures accurate to 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, show the average travel time between between the Leapool Island, at the A614, and the boundary with Sherwood took 13 minute, up from 10 minutes in 2010/11.

The junction with Cross Street and Oxclose Lane, listed as an air quality management area, where there is an ‘exceedance or likely exceedance’ of air quality issues.

In a bid to improve the figures, the city and county councils plan to invest some Transforming Cities funding to remove bus ‘pinch points’ at three sections of the road, between the A60’s Esso petrol station and Arch Hill, from Appledorne Way to Cross Street in Redhill, and on Oxclose Lane at its approach to Edwards Lane.

Council documents state the lanes will be operational 24/7, with cameras to ‘ensure compliance’.

The works are recommended for approval by the council’s transport and environment committee.

Documents published ahead of the meeting state: “Design work carried out since the original bid has confirmed the introduction of the sections of bus lane will be capacity neutral and will not detrimental to journey times for car users.

“There are also anticipated long-term benefits as a result of drivers opting to switch to public transport due to the improved bus journey times, which should further reduce congestion.”