Surrey awarded £1.8m from Safer Roads Fund

Surrey County Council has been awarded £1.8m from the Department of Transport’s ‘Safer Roads Fund’.

The funding forms part of a wider Government investment in the South East, which will see over £14.4m go towards improving the safety of four of the most dangerous roads in the area.

In Surrey, the funding will go towards improving the A25, covering 8.4km between the “Cockerel Roundabout” in Dorking at the western end, to the junction with A25 High Street at the eastern end in Reigate.

The Road Safety Foundation (RSF) identified this route as being within the worst A-road routes in England for the number of fatal and serious injuries per vehicle kilometre travelled, with there being a total of 70 collisions resulting in injury from 2017 to the end of November 2022, including one fatality.

Important factors to take into account include the popularity of the route for motorcyclists and pedal cyclists, and the fact that the A25 is the main east to west route corridor through Surrey.

The proposals seek to address this by tackling infrastructural issues highlighted by assessment software ViDA (managed by the RSF), whilst also addressing known safety problems that have been identified through analysis and local engineering knowledge.

The proposals include:

• Speed management measures – includes a lower 30 mph speed limit in Dorking between the “Cockerel” Roundabout and The Watermill Public House. 
• Improvements for pedestrians and cyclists within Dorking and Reigate – consisting of cycle tracks segregated from vehicles and pedestrians wherever possible using kerbs and/or traffic wands, and the narrowing of the carriageway to assist in reducing motor vehicle speeds. These improvements also align with the council’s aim of supporting active travel.
• Improvements at the junction with Brockham Lane – reduce the width of the carriageway for motor traffic to help reduce speeds and assist turning movements, along with enhanced facilities for pedestrians to cross the A25 and the mouth of Brockham Lane.
• Measures to mitigate the risk and consequences of motor vehicles leaving the road – consists of the use of raised carriageway line markings that will create a vibration to alert the driver if a vehicle strays too close to the edge of the carriageway, and high containment kerbs that will physically restrain vehicles from leaving the carriageway in case of loss of control on the main bends throughout the scheme.
• Central white line hatching to separate opposing flows of traffic – to be implemented along 40 mph sections of the route where there is sufficient road width to help reduce the risk of overtaking and head on collisions.

The majority of the scheme design will take place during the forthcoming financial year, with the majority of the construction taking place in the following financial year starting April 2024.

For more information on the Safer Roads Fund please see here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nearly-50-million-boost-for-safer-roads-across-england