Upgrading key M5 roundabout will cost £6.4m - and won't begin until summer 2025

Upgrading a congested roundabout near the M5 in Somerset will cost up to £6.4m – and work won’t begin until the summer of 2025. The Edithmead roundabout links junction 22 of the motorway to the A38 Bristol Road towards Highbridge and the B3140 Brent Road leading to Burnham-on-Sea, Berrow and Brean.

The roundabout was identified back in June 2021 as one of nine improvement schemes which could improve the flow of traffic on the A38 between Highbridge and Bristol Airport. Nearly three years later, Somerset Council has confirmed that it has formally applied to the Department for Transport (DfT) for funding to transform this crucial junction, at a predicted cost of £6.4m.

If funding is secured, however, work won’t start for at least a year to avoid clashing with the planned upgrade to the Dunball roundabout near junction 23, which is due to begin in the summer. Of the nine road improvements included in the ‘major road network’ (MRN) proposals, initially proposed by North Somerset Council and Somerset County Council, four of the schemes fall on the county council (now Somerset Council) side of the boundary.

The other schemes entail traffic calming measures being installed in the village of Rooksbridge, realigning the Cross junction, and an improved crossing for the Strawberry Line active travel route on the A38 Shute Shelve near Axbridge. The Edithmead upgrade will see the existing roundabout turned into a ‘throughabout’, with a new priority line running through the centre to take traffic from the motorway towards the northbound A38.

This, in theory, should reduce the traffic moving around the roundabout from the M5 in Highbridge, cutting congestion on the approach to the town. The proposals were given the go-ahead to move to the next stage and an outline business case was submitted in March 2022.

The schemes were thrown into question in early-2023 as a result of high inflation in the construction industry, with the projected cost of the entire MRN project rising from £25.1m to £30.9m. But the government provided a lifeline in October following the cancellation of the High Speed 2 link between Birmingham and Manchester – with the DfT announcing that some of the funding from the cancelled project could be reallocated to the A38 schemes pending a successful final bid.

Somerset Council confirmed on Tuesday (February 27) that it would be submitting this final bid for the Edithmead scheme very shortly, and that if successful the work would be carried out after the completion of the Dunball throughabout a few miles down the road. A spokesman said: “The delivery of improvements at Edithmead would not be concurrent with works at Dunball.

“If successful in the bid for funding with DfT, the works would be delivered after delivery of Dunball. We are in the process of producing a full business case for DfT, which, if successful, will fund the throughabout improvements.

The proposed Edithmead throughabout near Burnham-on-Sea

“The full business case being submitted includes costs for Edithmead of £6.4m.” The Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge area is identified within the Sedgemoor Local Plan as delivering 15 per cent of new homes in the district by 2032, along with an extension of the Isleport Business Park.

National Highways, which manages the M5, had placed a “holding objection” on numerous planning applications around the motorway junction, limiting how many new homes or commercial units could be developed until an improvement scheme had been agreed. To ease the problem, Sedgemoor District Council – in one of its final actions before being abolished – approved a £1.6m ‘Plan B’ scheme for the roundabout in February 2023.

This scheme – funded entirely by contributions from housing developers – would see the roundabout be “partially signalised”, without the new priority line being installed. Somerset Council did not comment on whether this ‘Plan B’ could or would still be implemented if the DfT bid was not successful.

The Edithmead roundabout seen from the A38 Bristol Road in Highbridge

However, it did confirm that the throughabout scheme would not include improved walking and cycling links to the Oaktree Business Park, where planning permission for various new business units is in place. The business park already includes a Screwfix and a Ford dealership, with planning permission for a McDonald’s drive-thru and Greggs outlet being granted by the council in June 2023.

Plans have recently been submitted for a new Starbucks drive-thru at the south-western corner of the site, nearest the roundabout linking the A38 Bristol Road with Isleport Lane and the Isleport Grove housing development being delivered by Countryside Partnerships.

In addition to these developments, Barratt Homes Bristol teased plans in January for a further 2,000 homes on the B3140 Brent Road – which, is approved, could see thousands of additional cars needing to use the Edithmead roundabout in a daily basis.

The Oaktree Business Park on the A38 Bristol Road in Highbridge

The outcome of the final business case for the MRN schemes is expected to be announced later in the year. The council is currently in the early stages of procuring a contractor for both the Dunball and Edithmead schemes, arguing that including both schemes in a single bid could help to cut costs.

A spokesman said: “The Edithmead scheme has been included as part of the Dunball procurement process in order to maximise best value by employing economies of scale across multiple projects.”