Road upgrades Sutton to Birmingham route
The proposed alterations run between Salford Circus, near Spaghetti Junction, and the stretch of Birmingham Road running parallel to Beeches Walk in Sutton town centre.
Despite reaching into central Sutton, the changes – which include new islands and widened highways – are unrelated to ambitious ideas to reorganise traffic flow locally.
Instead, the stretch under review by council engineers stops some yards short of the core area earmarked for major regeneration.
The updates along Birmingham Road and Sutton Road, which link the city to Sutton via Erdington, will be showcased from next week in public displays at local libraries.
The designs suggest that the most significant change will come at the Sutton end of the arterial route, where Birmingham Road crosses Jockey Road.
Engineers are proposing to prohibit right turns from Birmingham Road into Pilkington Avenue. They also want to realign the kerb line at the Jockey Road entrance to Beeches Walk, maintaining the commercial strip's one-way system and introducing nine new parking bays.
An existing access onto Birmingham Road, set within the middle of Beeches Walk, could be blocked under further proposals. It would be replaced by a new footway.
A council spokesman said: "Birmingham City Council has identified the whole route for improvements to vehicle journey times, the current accident statistics along the route and all the bus stop infrastructure."
One key change to bus systems could see the Birmingham Road stop which neighbours The Driffold relocated nearer to the Beeches Walk strip.
Other ideas, elsewhere along the route, include new pedestrian crossing systems, widened central reserves and cameras.
Narrowed footways to allow the widening programmes, extensions to existing traffic islands, and new "splitter" islands are also on show for the public.
The plans may be viewed between 9am and 4pm at Erdington Library, Orphanage Road, on March 15, and Sutton Town Hall, Upper Clifton Road, on March 18.
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