Rhondda Cynon Taf Council continues to press for further solutions to traffic issues at the Abercynon roundabout.

The roundabout at the junction of the A470 and the A4059 road serving the Cynon Valley is part of the trunk road network and therefore comes under the remit of the Welsh Assembly Government. The Council is working closely with the Assembly to improve the situation for motorists there.

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council has previously met with Assembly transport officials to discuss the options available to deal with road safety and traffic issues affecting the main route from Cardiff to the Cynon Valley.

In these meetings and in several letters, the Cabinet Member for Transport, Customer Care and Emergency Planning, Councillor Andrew Morgan has raised the Council’s concerns over the continuous build up of traffic during peak times at the Abercynon junction of the A470.

Councillor Morgan has been pressing the Assembly Government for several years to implement measures to increase capacity at the A470 / A4059 roundabout to relieve congestion in Abercynon caused by ‘rat-run’ motorists seeking a shortcut..

The Council recently undertook works to rectify the build up of traffic on Greenfield and Glancynon Terraces by installing permanent traffic lights to reduce the impact on residents and deter motorists from taking a shortcut to avoid the A470 roundabout. Although the Assembly Government installed traffic lights at the A470 / A4059 junction, the fact that the roundabout is operating near full capacity means that there are still tailbacks and drivers are increasingly reverting to the shortcut through the residential streets of Abercynon.

The Council is pleased to hear that the Assembly Government has commissioned a consultant through the South Wales Trunk Road Agency to carry out a feasibility study to look at the options available to develop a dedicated left turn lane on the northbound approach to the roundabout. The Assembly Government has also confirmed that they are now in receipt of the report, which identifies five options and recommends the need for an economic appraisal and traffic modelling assessment to establish the preferred option. The results of the latter are expected in late April and a bid for funding to develop the design of the preferred option will be considered as part of decisions on funding of trunk road schemes across Wales.

Councillor Andrew Morgan, Cabinet Member for Transport, Customer Care and Emergency Planning, said:

“There has been the long standing issue of motorists using Greenfield and Glancynon Terraces as a shortcut to avoid queues at the A470 roundabout. We have now put in place permanent traffic lights to deter people from using this route and the traffic signals on the roundabout itself, which were provided in partnership with the Assembly Government to improve safety, have also helped to reduce traffic in Abercynon.

“I am pleased to hear that after years of lobbying and working with the Welsh Assembly Government some progress has been made on this long standing issue. Rhondda Cynon Taf Council fully supports, and indeed is strongly lobbying for, action to improve this extremely busy stretch of the A470 and is pleased to hear that consideration is being given to options for a dedicated left turn lane to serve northbound vehicles at this roundabout. This Council also supports a bid for funding for any other improvement designed to increase capacity and reduce queue lengths and subsequent delays to journeys by all types of road users”.

“We will continue to work in partnership with the Assembly to find a solution to this long standing problem”