The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps MP) has granted a Development Consent Order, which allows the project to improve the M25 junction 10/A3 Wisley interchange to proceed.
The junction has circa 300,000 journeys every day making it one of the busiest major junctions in the country. This volume of traffic is accompanied by a high number of incidents, partly caused by queuing affecting the M25 and A3.
Work is due to start on the new junction latter in 2022. The cost of the scheme is likely to be about £300M.
The Scheme includes the first Green Bridge to connect the heathland across the A3.
Full Details can be found on the National Highways Website
The new junction has major implications for Guildford Residents.
Although once built the new junction should make journeys easier, as with all road schemes there is a danger it could to shift congestion elsewhere on the network. A particular concern is that there is no comprehensive plan for the A3 running south through Guildford which already suffers serious pollution and numerous incidents. The Department of Transport are considering improvements at A3/A247 Ripley South in a 2025-2030 timescale (Local Plan Policy A43a - North Facing Slips at Burnt Common). The A3 through Guildford is under review but it could be a long time before plans are bought forward.
There is a school of thought that building more road capacity is self defeating efeting due to the theory of induced demand. See Post
The A3 Junction approval includes a new access route to RHS Wisley. This access is due to also provide one of the key access points for the proposed Wisley Airfield Development (Local Plan Policy A35 - Former Wisley Airfield) . This development is now likely to come forward as a planning application in the near future. See Details of Site
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