Stretch of Westmount could be left untouched in hospital highway plan

Wednesday 07 April 2021

The designers behind the controversial £15m hospital highway have said that it would be “achievable” for at least some of Westmount Road to be left as it is.

Speaking at an Overdale Neighbourhood Forum, Alex Welch, the transport lead from design firm Arup, said that a stretch of Westmount could be left untouched, or at least have a minimised width compared to the rest of the road.

Pictured: The green area of this diagram represents the area of Westmount that could potentially be left alone.

The comments come following a commitment from Deputy Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham, who has political responsibility for the project, "to look very closely" at the "do nothing" option for the road, which only scored one point behind current plans in a contractor’s assessment.

While Mr Welch said that it would be “substandard” for the majority of the road to be left as it is, the idea could be feasible for a stretch near the bottom.

“Our thinking is at present is a ‘do nothing option’ could be achievable for the stretch of Westmount from St. Aubin’s Road adjacent to the nursery, and in that we could potentially look at minimising the width there,” he said.

Pictured: The current designs involve the widening of Westmount Road.

However, Mr Welch said that for the rest of the road, particularly with regards to the hairpin bend and its width, at “the current time the existing alignment of [the do nothing option] is substandard, as we’ve described before, but we certainly will be looking to take that into account as the design progresses."

The current “emerging” design for Westmount Road presented to members of the forum currently envisages a 10.7m wide ‘travel corridor’ for the road, with a 6.7m carriageway. 

A 4m ‘active travel’ route would be put alongside this, split into a cycle path and a path for walkers. Features like new retaining walls are also to be required for the work.

Even with the nursery strip potentially being left alone, slightly further down the road in the South and East part of the area, there could still be further changes to the layout of People’s Park. 

Pictured: Arup Transport Lead Alex Welch outlined the reasons why plan designers thought leaving a large swathe of the road untouched would lead to accessibility issues.

At a Community Group Liaison Meeting last week, Mr Welch said that though their plan for this area was currently in for approval, that they were looking at creating two-way running in the area, which could potentially mean the loss of the parking strip by People’s Park.

“We’re looking to introduce two-way running from the junction of Westmount with St. Aubin’s Road to its junction with Kensington Street. 

“Effectively, then, that means the widening of the carriageway - not significantly, but enough that would mean potential loss of the People’s Park parking strip,” he said. 

“With that then, we’re also looking at the introduction of a signal junction around about the area of the Pétanque courts, so effectively we would need to provide those in a different location.”

Campaigners have previously expressed concerns that building a new hospital access route could mean the loss of a significant number of mature trees in the People's Park area, but Senator Farnham has previously stated his "intention" was "not to lose a single tree", with those that have to be removed replaced elsewhere.