Delayed upgrade for Tollgate Green junction, in Bury St Edmunds, is pencilled in for summer 2025

Work on a major road scheme designed to improve capacity at a key Bury St Edmunds junction is set to start next year – more than five years after the changes were rubber-stamped.

Suffolk County Council has confirmed work on the Tollgate Green junction is pencilled in for next summer, although exact dates have not yet been confirmed.

The triangle – at the junction of Out Northgate, Tollgate Lane, Mildenhall Road and the B1106 – has been under increased pressure due to developments such as the Marham Park estate and Abbeygate Sixth Form.

Highways bosses have been discussing changes to the junction since 2015, before construction work on Marham Park started.

In early 2020 a consultation was held, with opinions sought on three proposed options to remodel the junction. Suffolk County Council chose a package which would see extra lanes added to Tollgate Lane and Fornham Road, with a new pedestrian crossing at the Fornham Road junction, by the Tollgate pub.

At that time, the county council said following public feedback the plans would be amended to also include a right turn from Mildenhall Road to Tollgate Lane and ‘improved facilities’ for cyclists and pedestrians.

It was thought work on the scheme would start in early 2021.

This week, Suffolk Highways said the details of the scheme were currently being designed and once the design was complete it would need to go through an approvals process and modelling.

A Suffolk Highways spokesperson said: “The work will involve upgrades to the traffic signals, designed to make the area safer and more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians.”

However, Tower division county councillor David Nettleton has questioned whether the proposed changes would help pedestrians and cyclists and called for measures to reduce car dependency and promote active travel.

“I think the work envisaged by Highways is designed to speed motor vehicles south along Fornham Road towards the town centre,” said Cllr Nettleton.

“All this will achieve is to concentrate more cars and vans in the section of road between the two bridges and beyond into Out Northgate, where traffic will wait longer before turning right into Station Hill.

“This will also lead to more traffic waiting at the entrance to the Northgate roundabout.”