PARKGATE PARK & RIDE AND NEW LINK ROAD

Published 20 August 2021 at 1:43pm

Status: Completed.

Opening date: 16 May 2025.

Cost: £12,898,000 (£12.9m).

Main funding stream: Transforming Cities Fund (£11.5m), with additional funding from CRSTS, Rotherham Council and other local funds.

Delivery and other partners: Rotherham Council, Parkgate Shopping Centre.

Contractor: Tillbury Douglas.

Description

Link Road

High traffic volumes combined with a large number of junctions and accesses in Parkgate resulted in significant congestion and slow journey times for general traffic and buses at peak times. The congestion was mainly due to the large retail park at Parkgate, located in close proximity to the major A633/A6123 roundabout, which generates large volumes of traffic, and had only one entrance and exit from the A633. This had a major effect on bus journey times and reliability and was raised as a major concern by bus operators.

A package of complementary measures were implemented to address significant congestion in the area particularly along the A633 which is a key bus route linking major employment and retail opportunities in Rotherham town centre, Parkgate, Rawmarsh and the Dearne Valley.

A new link road into the retail park, which opened to traffic at the end of November 2024, forms an alternative connection to the A6123, and relieves traffic on the A633. The package of measures has resulted in much more reliable bus services along the key A633 corridor, improved bus journey times during peak periods, encouraged economic growth at Parkgate and provided improved access to Tram Train and the major urban centres of Rotherham and Sheffield. Much of this corridor is located within Air Quality Management Areas, including the city-wide AQMA in Sheffield.

The scheme also improves resilience on the highway network as previously when incidents occurred on the A633 they caused significant disruption to traffic, resulting in longer journey times and congestion due to the limited alternative routes available.

Park & Ride

As part of the design development of the Rotherham Parkgate Link Road project, an opportunity arose to include a 289-space Park & Ride site close to the retail park and existing Tram Train stop.

The new Park & Ride opened on Friday 16 May 2025 and includes 10 motorcycle bays, sheltered parking for 9 bicycles, 14 electric vehicle charging points, 10 parent and child and 13 accessible parking spaces.

Completed project stages

We asked for people's views to help shape our proposals for the Parkgate Link Road, Park & Ride and Taylors Lane roundabout scheme in a public consultation held between Monday 15 March and Friday 16 April 2021. Feedback from the consultation helped to develop our full planning application for the Scheme, which was submitted in October 2021 and approved with conditions on 12 August 2022 by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

Read a summary of the consultation feedback (PDF, 2Mb)

Online Q&A sessions took place on Wednesday 24 March and Tuesday 6 April 2021:

Read a summary of the session held on Wednesday 24 March (PDF, 151Kb)
Read a summary of the session held on Tuesday 6 April (PDF, 196Kb)

The Taylors Lane roundabout element was descoped, post consultation.

During the construction work, there was fly-by video of the site, recording how the scheme developed.