Tyneside ring road ‘must be put first’ says North Tyneside mayor

May 18 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

A RING ROAD for Tyneside will be put before transport bosses as concern grows that A19-gridlock could cripple the region’s economy.

Traffic along the road is set to increase when the second Tyne Tunnel opens in 2011, prompting fears the Coast Road’s Silverlink roundabout simply will not be able to cope with the 10,00 extra cars expected each day.

North Tyneside mayor John Harrison has called on the region to back improvements now or risk five years of traffic chaos.

And after a failed bid to use toll road funds to upgrade the Silverlink roundabout Mr Harrison will this month seek to persuade the region’s transport bosses they must make Tyneside the North East’s funding priority.

As part of the much-needed improvements business leaders have suggested joining up existing routes to create an easy-to-use ring road for the city region.

If they can gather Government support, the A19 and the A1 will have links between them improved. The proposed route would see the link between the two roads at Seaton Burn used as the top of the ring road.

Planners would then look at making it easier to cross from the A19 to the A1, potentially using the A184 and the A194(M) to create the a circular dual carriageway.

At the same time, key roundabouts along the A19 would have overpasses or underpasses built in their place to ensure traffic speeding up the road is not delayed by busy junctions.

Mr Harrison is to go before the Interim regional Transport Board later this month to urge a change in the timetable for how road improvement cash is spent.

“A new deal for the A19’ will mean more jobs, it really is as simple as that,” Mr Harrison said. “In North Tyneside we have been able to attract big employers to the Cobalt business park precisely because we have made the upgrade of the A19 our top priority.