A358 Taunton to Southfields
We’re proposing to upgrade the A358 to dual carriageway between Southfields Roundabout on the A303 and the M5 at Taunton. The delivery of this scheme is part of a long term aim to create a high-quality dual carriage way link between London and the South East and the South West.
Project information
The A303/A358 corridor is a vital connection between the South West and London and the South East. While much of the corridor is a dual carriageway, there are still over 35 miles of single carriageway. These sections act as congestion bottlenecks, particularly in the summer months and at weekends, causing delays to road users, and they add to an increased risk of accidents.
Currently most of the A358 is a single lane and has many local roads and private accesses joining directly with it. It’s often congested and is a source of frustration for local people, and those using the road to travel longer distances.
Many road users try to avoid the traffic congestion by diverting onto smaller local roads, which then increases the level of traffic in surrounding villages.
To address this, we’re proposing to upgrade a nine-mile section of the A358 between Southfields Roundabout on the A303 and the M5 at Taunton, to a high quality dual carriageway.
In 2019 we made our preferred route announcement for the improvement scheme, confirming that we’ll be taking a modified version of the pink option forward. You can find out more about the options consultations and the chosen route.
In delivering the scheme, we’re aiming to:
- improve the capacity of the road to reduce delays and queues that occur during peak hours and at key times of the year i.e. the height of summer.
- support economic growth, facilitating growth in jobs and housing by providing a free-flowing and reliable connection between the South East and the South West
- make the road safer, by providing additional capacity and reducing driver stress. We’ll also improve routes for pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders in the area.
- protect the environment and look for opportunities to improve it, minimising any unnecessary impact of the scheme on the surrounding natural and historic environment and landscape
- work with local communities to reduce the impact of the road in terms of community severance, and look for ways to improve local peoples’ quality of life
- make journey times more reliable and resilient; by providing more capacity it will become easier to manage traffic when incidents occur
Documents
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Traffic information
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