The road junction at Newtown Mountain Ash an accident black spot for traffic on the A4059
Taken from Twitter by Mark Bennett
Another serious accident resulting in two hospitalisations last night on the A4059 ‘Newtown Speedway’. Worst designed piece of road in living memory. Put a roundabout there or get rid of the second lane
@RCTCouncil.
The above was posted on Twitter today 3 September 2022, not surprising this accident black spot was created by whoever designed this junction CAPITA GLAMORGAN CONSULTANCY LIMITED part of the CAPITA PLC group. Back in 2008 Capita wins £75M Welsh contracts with Bridgend County Borough Council, Merthyr County Borough Council and Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council entered into the agreement with Capita – valued at £75 M – which will run for up to 15 years. I expect the contract value has well exceeded the original £75 M.
Going back to the accident black spot in Newtown Mountain Ash 1. A place on a road where accidents frequently occur 2. A dangerous or difficult place, the council says the junction complies with current design standards and the council cannot be responsible for poor driving behaviour.
So why did we need another set of traffic lights in the first place the one set on Mount Bridge is bad enough, there is ample room for a decent roundabout at this point so why did CAPITA GLAMORGAN CONSULTANCY LIMITED design the new road layout with traffic lights at more cost to run than a roundabout. Why was it allowed and passed by the council even when Andrew Morgan in charge of highways and leader of the council said, “Any lights along the A4059 are bad news”
Let's not forget Mid Glamorgan County Council before the introduction of an outside consultant became involved did the original idea for the improvements to the traffic flows through Mountain Ash with a Sothern Link and a Northern Link both had roundabouts not traffic lights, constructing the Northern Link as proposed by Mid Glamorgan County Council would do away with the traffic lights on the A4059 next to Mountain Ash Town Hall now that would be an improvement, if it was in Pontypridd it would happen so residents in Cynon Valley have to put up with an outdated traffic system at Mountain Ash.
Mark Bennett
Jul 14, 2018
Replying to
@RCTCouncil
Just passed the area (2 mins ago)……motorbike on the deck, driver picking it up (clearly cheesed off). Female driver remaining in her car. Checked if they were ok.
When is the road safety audit result being published?
Take it from me, it’s an absolute shambles.
@gogsysul
Jul 21, 2018
Enticing people to overtake, and speed, so in essence RCTC are enticing people to break the law. Why was there no road safety audit done, prior to alterations, and before the plans were passed…I take it some sort of survey was done before the plans were passed…what was it?
Andrew Calderbank
Jul 14, 2018
Replying to
@RCTCouncil
I drive a lot for work and have seen more ‘near misses’ at this junction in the 2 months or so that it’s been open than in the rest of S Wales in the last 2 years. Regardless of the result of the safety audit don’t let it mask the fact that this is a very dangerous layout.
Do the council get involved with highways planning this has been subcontracted out for years it was the Glamorgan Consultancy based in Taffs Well but it is now the multi-national company Capita PLC London with an office in Cardiff. They design any highway that requires building like the proposed Aberdare bypass or any highway project, not only highways all flood prevention work, they also designed the new Aberdare Community School, they also produced plans for the same school on 3 sites 1 On the Aberdare College site 2 the fields behind the Aberdare Boys School towards Cwmdare 3 the Ynys where the school is now built plus all the road and car parks alterations that went with it.
But the best part is that the supervision of the work is mostly done by Redstart part of the Capita group, Capita is in a win-win with local taxpayers footing the large bill. Redstart (Capita) is a public-private collaboration between Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil and, Bridgend Councils together with Capita plc. Redstart is used to provide highway infrastructure projects and provides engineering consultancy services.
CAPITA’s contract is almost up will the council renew the contract time will tell.
