Exit aim for A55 'traffic island'

The council says the junction will ease traffic headed for Airbus

Plans to upgrade an A55 junction will stop Broughton acting as a "traffic island," a council claims.

Flintshire Council this week voted to run the Warren Hall interchange project for the Welsh Assembly Government.

Derek Butler, the council's officer responsible for economic regeneration, said the scheme would also benefit a proposed business park.

The project will add two new slip roads to the existing junction at Broughton.

Currently, westbound traffic can leave the A55 at the village but can not join it. Drivers can join the eastbound route, but not exit.

Councillor Butler said the completion of the Warren Bank interchange was part of the "catch up" in road infrastructure for the area, which includes the Airbus factory at Broughton and a busy retail park.

He said: "For a long time now we have been a traffic island. The infrastructure that should have been put in place years ago was not put in place.

"We are getting another interchange. It will deflect traffic that currently comes through the village to either the Airbus factory or Broughton retail park.

"It will be a major congestion relief."

Detailed costs of the scheme, which would be funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, have not yet been finalised.