£1M UNDERPASS PLAN FOR BRITANNIA STADIUM

[markscfc72]

Plans for a £1 million underpass at the Britannia Stadium have been unveiled to put an end to traffic chaos for thousands of fans on match days.

Stoke City wants to install a subway to avoid fans having to cross the busy slip road off the A50 on match days.

The club, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and developers St Modwen, have been involved in talks aimed at working out a plan for the new underpass.



The underpass would prevent the massive delays on the car parks which currently build up as motorists wait for thousands of fans to make their way across the road.

The £1 million pathway, which would lead to the Boothen End from close to the Holiday Inn on the other side of the road, will be funded by Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration, a join initiative between the city council and St Modwen.

Stoke City's chief executive Tony Scholes said: "At the time when we bought the Britannia Stadium it was part of discussions, so the idea has been around for a long time.

"Parking and traffic is a major issue for us, both for easy access for supporters to the ground and ensuring their safety. We have an average of 16,000 people every match day.

"The club have had safety concerns for some time.

"The building of the underpass will be a significant step forward in improving things around the ground."

Although St Modwen anticipates submitting an application for the underpass soon, work is unlikely to start before the end of next season.

St Modwen also plans to expand parking outside the stadium towards the railway and will resurface the existing overspill car park.

Euan Lindsay, senior development manager at St Modwen, said: "The city council, the police and the football club have been concerned about pedestrian flow across Stanley Matthews Way.

"It jams up traffic because you get a steady stream of fans coming out of the ground heading towards the footbridge over the A50.

"One way round the safety concerns and to ease the traffic flow is the proposal to put an underpass in under a section of Stanley Matthews Way.

"It would connect with the footpath behind the Holiday Inn Express and come out in the northern car park.

"We will be looking to get a planning application in very soon.

"We don't want to do a lot of the work while the football is going on, and if Stoke go through the play-offs the season is extended even further.

"The chances are, most of the work will be done at the end of next season."

surely they could start the work at the end of this season?

[glouscesterstokie]

thank god something had to be done
fed up parking on the slip road
cheers mate ;D

[Beebster]

About time - im fed up with waiting over an hour to get off the north carpark.

[bayernoatcake]

If they haven't got planning permission yet then the end of next season is the closest possible date in reality.

[lordb]

shame it will be 09/10 before we get the benefit but better late than never

'..extending the car park towards the railway...' - is taht why they dug over that strip of land beyond the west car park?

[Lakeland Potter]

I'd imagine that the delay until the end of next season has something to do with budgets. The council has probably already committed its budget for this sort of capital work for the current financial year which means that the funding will need to come out of the budget for the 2009/10 financial year - UNLESS some extra money is found by, for example, a project which was in the 2008/9 budget getting delayed for some reason.

[bayernoatcake]

So are the council paying for it?

[Deleted]

Underpants for Britannia Stadium? - whats wrong with going Commando.

[Kenilworth_Stokies]

Sounds like good stuff, bound to rekindle the old "Council giving money to Stoke" claims from the Division 4 boys up the road.

Surely, a lollypop lady could do the job for a fraction of the price though?

[bayernoatcake]

That will bring the Vale fans out in a rash! ;D

[Lakeland Potter]

bayern - it is a co-operative venture between the council and St Modwen

[bayernoatcake]

So we aren't putting a penny into it-cool!

[Lakeland Potter]

Be nice if St Peter, the council, St Modwen and Network Rail could sort out a Britannia Station...............

[Deleted]

fornside said:

bayern - it is a co-operative venture between the council and St Modwen

Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration is a joint venture between the Council and St Modwens - the breakdown effectively being 14% Council and 86% St Modwens. The councils interest is purely financial - and they don'e really have much to do with any development.

It is the same on Festival Park also.

[leicspotter]

Wouldn't a footbridge be quicker and cheaper?

[Lakeland Potter]

Pedestrians in a hurry are less likely to use a footbridge than an underpass. At least that was our experience when I was on Plymouth Highways Committee. Remember that from the back of the Boothen an underpass entrance would be at the same level as the existing area behind the stands - whereas a bridge would mean steps or a ramp up to road level and then steps or a ramp to 20 feet above the road level.

[bayernoatcake]

Train station would cost 3-4 million and would slow the west coast mainline down. That is why there isn't one so I hear.

[Lakeland Potter]

A halt (ie no new track) would slow the main line down. Two new stretches of track for the platforms with two "through" lines between them would not slow the main line down.

If we get and maintain our Prem status (big if) then £3million - £4 million wouldn't be too high a price and would maximise the earning potential of the stadium.

[wembley4372]

It may help with the penguin shuffle. But I doubt it will ease the exit for cars very much. What we need are some better organised roads

[bayernoatcake]

It would slow it down though-an extra stop for trains adding 5-8 minutes on the journey. They wouldn't allow it.

[Lakeland Potter]

I think the underpass will make quite a difference. My experience in the south carpark is that traffic takes about 45 minutes before it is flowing reasonably freely. I reckon an underpass will knock 10 or 15 minutes off that figure and improvements to the exits to the carpark (ie the north exit for left turns and the south exit for right turns) will knock a few more minutes off the figure. Together the two measure might halve the delays. I do agree that improvements to the road system would also help but you are talking big money for that.

[GillowHeathStokie]

I have an idea, why dont we all get down there with our spades - we'd have it done in no time AND we could get them to spend the £1m on a decent midfielder!

[Lakeland Potter]

Bayern, only some of the trains would be stopping trains and those would only stop on 20 or so days a year. In Devon where I used to live they opened a brand new station at Ivybridge (7 miles out of Plymouth) about 15 years ago and it didn't cause any time table problems or delays to the non stopping trains.

[bayernoatcake]

But on the West Cost Mainline the plan is shutting stations not opening new ones. Wedgwood, Barlaston and more on the way were all shut because Virgin did not want to stop at them as it would add 10 minutes to the journey. They even stopped local trains using them.

[followyoudown]

what a great idea the underpass is why don't the council, st modwen and the club try and sue the idiots who built the Brit for being incompetent and not building one to begin with oh hang on

[StatesideStokie]

An underpass leading to the Boothen End........... I bet visiting fans are looking forward to that one!

[Lakeland Potter]

If the Britannia Station was open every day and the majority of trains stopped there, you would be right but a football station would open only on match days and then only for some trains. Other parts of the country seem to cope - no doubt we would as well. If Virgin were too obstructive then they would run the risk of losing their franchise at the next renewal date.

[bayernoatcake]

I doubt it would ever happen. As that was the main obstacle and the money. I read it somewhere-don't where though.