Improvements are to be made at the A477 Red Roses junction after longstanding calls to make the section of road coming into Pembrokeshire safer, to reduce risk of accidents and stop any fatalities.
A petition was previously set up calling upon the Welsh Government to implement safety measures at the junction.
The A477 from St Clears west into Pembrokeshire is a busy route used by local residents, holiday traffic, ferry traffic and deliveries throughout West Wales, but concerns have been raised for many years about the fact that the Red Roses junction is a 90 degree turn at the bottom of a hill with no slip road.
“You can take it at no more than 20mph, with trunk road traffic behind you travelling downhill at often 70mph, and no way to move off the main A477. It is frightening,” Victoria Mitchell of Eglwyscummin Community Council, which encompasses the village of Red Roses, had stated previously.
“Ever since the junction was opened in 2014 local residents have been campaigning to have this junction improved. The signpost has been hit many times. Vehicles have gone through crash barriers and ended up in the nearby ditch.
“There have been multiple collisions reported to the police and many many more near misses we know about.
“Really it also needs a slip road so that vehicles can reduce speed safely off the main carriageway.”
Members of the Eglwyscummin Community Council and residents of Red Roses had recently held a road-side meeting with local politicians to highlight concerns over the ‘unsafe’ section, hoping that continued pressured on the Welsh Government would deliver the additional safety modifications needed to reduce the number of incidents happening at the junction.
Now one of those politicians - Conservative Member of the Senedd for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Samuel Kurtz has given an update on safety measures to be introduced at the junction.
“The A477 is one of the quickest roads in the county, and it’s also one of the main roads into Pembrokeshire, alongside the A40; and today I’ve met with Welsh Government officials, the South Wales Trunk Road Agency, and the Eglwyscummin Community Council, to talk about the measures being introduced to make this junction safe,” the Senedd Member shared on July 29.
“So we’ve got new bollards coming to mark the entry point of this junction, especially important at night; we’re going to have ‘araf/slow’ road markings in red paint on the carriageway to determine where drivers need to slow down; and we’re going to have better signage.
“Now, the jury’s out to see whether those three things will make this junction safer, but we’ll see, it’s good to have some investment her from the Welsh Government making this safe, because it’s really important.”