Traffic Access to the Magazine site

Discussions between the design team and the road authorities have been ongoing for a number of months regarding traffic circulation to and from this site. Lack of access to the Magazine site has been a longstanding hindrance to the development of the Magazine and the Lion Battery sites.

From a traffic-related perspective, the development proposal is a recreational and tourist attraction which will generate visitors mainly during off-peak periods outside of normal commuter traveling peaks, such as on weekends and, to a lesser degree, in the early summer evenings. Overseas experience is such that a similar facility generates a maximum attraction of 1 200 persons on the most popular day of the year, but clearly these visitor arrivals and departures were spread out over a period of some 12 hours.

It is anticipated that there will be visitors arriving by coach, taxi and on foot but the predominant mode of travel will be the private vehicle. In this regard, the majority of trips will arrive from the City side of the site via the Buitengracht

EXISTING TRAFFIC MOVEMENTS

The current position with regard to traffic movements in the area is that Buitengracht (M 62) forms an important link to and from the City, both for commuters and tourists alike.

 

The one-way couplet has recently been upgraded at the intersection of Burnside Road, through to Buitensingel to ease traffic safety concerns and improve traffic flows.

However, the route experiences significant traffic volumes for the a.m and p.m peak periods, approximately from 07:00 to 08:30 in the mornings and from 16:00 to 18:00 in the evenings, when congestion and delays reflect typical urban peak period characteristics.

 

The adjoining streets in the vicinity of the Magazine Site, such as Milner Road, Military Road etc pass through residential areas and are narrow streets with small radii corners, typical of residential access roads.

 

To the north, the streets of Schotsche Kloof are similar both in design and difficult geometry which limit their usefulness as potential access roads to the site. The possibility for gaining access from Buitengracht, via Bloem and Leeuwen, through Schotsche Kloof has been investigated but the intersection spacing, current road reserve limitations on Buitengracht, plus the difficult geometry suggest that any future access between Buitensingel and Wale Street would produce insurmountable traffic problems.

 

 FUTURE ACCESS TO THE SITE

It is proposed to use the potential access via Carisbrook Road, to explore further the potential for ingress and egress to the site. In this preliminary form, an access to the site via Carisbrook Road offers the following potential for visitors to the sit:

• Vehicular Access would generally be during off-peak periods, i.e. weekends, holidays and recreational periods, such as lunch times. In this manner, there would be a general avoidance of the commuter peak periods, and the potential capacity of the external road network would provide ample spare capacity for visitors to the site.
   

•  The circulation would generally be left in, left out, to and from Buitengracht i.e. traffic from the city would travel south along Buitengracht, turn right at Milner Road and right again to return in a southerly direction. It would then be able to turn left into Carisbrook. Exiting traffic would return along Carisbrook, and turn left into Buitengracht before returning towards the City.
   

• It is believed that there will be little demand for vehicles to exit towards the south towards Kloof Nek, but there should be provision made for low volumes of light vehicles only to exit through Milner or Burnside Roads.
   

The volumes of traffic and duration of stay expected at the site will depend greatly on the conceptual layout and content of the overall design, plus on the mix of public and private modes of transport. Any estimate of future trips to and from the site remains speculative at this early stage of the feasibility assessment, but a peak hour volume of traffic over a weekend peak hour could be in the order of two to three hundred vehicles to the site.

 

Traffic access old magazine.

Any development at the old magazine has to take into account traffic flow. Our proposed opening after 9am and closing after 9pm avoids peak periods and minimises traffic impact. 

CONCLUSIONS

Access to the Magazine Site has been investigated from a traffic perspective, in order to provide a preliminary feasibility assessment of potential access points to and from the site. Discussions and preliminary designs suggest that Carisbrook Road offers the most direct access into the site, although there remain a number of design issues that require clarification and finalization.

It is understood that any final proposals would be subject to a full public participation process, and a comprehensive Traffic Impact Assessment would need to be undertaken, in order to quantify the likely impact and satisfy the road authorities that such a solution would be feasible. However, the preliminary design and discussions with the road authorities suggest that a solution can be pursued for a Carisbrook Road access to the Magazine Site to upgrade the site to serve a recreational purpose.

Traffic Diagrams