Winchester City Council has raised concerns about the potential environmental impacts surrounding the major planned updates to the M3 Junction 9.

National Highways planned changes for the junction and roundabout are to widen the road by adding extra lanes, and help control traffic flow by adding new bridges and slip lanes. 

They estimate that the overall cost of the scheme will be in the region of £190million to £210million, a 45% increase on the original budget says the council.

Cllr Malcolm Wallace, Winchester City Council Green Party member, outlined the main concerns that the council have. 

He said: “By putting in this new junction, we’re going to see 20% more traffic going past Winchester flowing onto the A34. Now you may think that because we won’t have a bunch of queueing traffic at the junction that the emissions would go down, but actually the reverse is the case. The National Highways have forecasted that the emissions will go up, meaning that the increased traffic is going to more than offset the reduction from having no cue.

“The construction time is anticipated to last 3 years, during which time a variety of traffic restrictions will be in place around the junction including occasional full carriageway closures, meaning traffic will have to be diverted through Winchester. This means air quality will be further impacted when traffic is diverted through the city.

“Finally, the last point I want to make is about the economic benefit. In the submitted proposal from National Highways the valuation of the scheme was estimated so that essentially for every £1 invested would deliver £1.44 in economic benefit. However since the report the overall estimated construction cost of the scheme has increased to up to £210million.

“We need to put in ways to enable people to move around in other ways; so improve cycle lanes, better walking facilities, improved bus transport. £200million is an awful lot of money and it could be spent in improving our transport infrastructure in different ways rather than on this particular junction.”

Scheduled construction of the junction is set to begin late 2024 and Cllr Wallace highlighted that at the moment, the councils and National Highways long-term plans seem to almost directly contradict each other. 

A National Highways spokesperson said: “We are committed to improving journeys for hundreds of thousands of people on the M3, and we stand by our plans for the improvements at junction 9 outlined in our DCO application. Our proposals will improve safety, connect communities and help improve journey times, with environment factors at their core.” 

For further information about the M3 Junction 9 project, visit: https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/m3-junction-9-information-portal/