Portmore Roundabout is located east of Barnstaple at the junction of the A361 North Devon Link with the A39 Eastern Avenue. It is the main eastern access for Barnstaple and it is a key junction on the A361\A39 strategic corridor linking the M5 and national road network to North Devon, Torridge and North Cornwall. The junction carried around 2,000 vehicles in the AM and PM peak hours and experienced congestion in the peak workday and holiday periods with capacity exceeded on all arms.
Significant growth is planned in Northern Devon, including up to 5943 new dwellings and 30 ha of employment in Torridge and 3885 new dwellings and 26 ha of employment in North Devon. The junction improvement will provide additional capacity to accommodate the increased travel demand resulting from this growth. The scheme involves widening on the approaches to the roundabout and increasing the size of the roundabout itself.
The junction improvement unlocks 2.8ha of employment space and 170 of the planned 250 houses at Mount Sandford Green and provides future junction capacity to cater for traffic growth in the wider area.
The objectives of the scheme are to:-
- Ensure the operational effectiveness of the strategic A361 route.
- Support development growth in Barnstaple.
- Accommodate increased traffic movements from Barnstaple.
Outputs:
The scheme supports the delivery of 500 jobs and 250 houses
Total scheme cost: £1.52m
Growth Deal 1 Funding: £0.76m
Started on site: September 2016
Completed: June 2017