§ 57. Mr. Turtonasked the Minister of Transport what is the theoretical traffic capacity of the A19 trunk road between Thirsk and Stockton for passenger car units and for commercial vehicles, respectively, per day; and what was the actual load carried of these categories in this section on the latest convenient date.
§ Mr. SwinglerThe design capacity of this road is 6,000 passenger car units per 1054 day for the two-lane sections of this road and 25,000 passenger car units per day for the dual two-lane section: commercial vehicles are not considered separately in design capacity. Traffic counts at four points, taken in mid-August, 1965, gave average daily flows between 6,995 and 12,547 passenger car units for the two-lane sections and 12,522 for the dual two-lane section. The volume of commercial vehicles varied between 1,586 and 2,620 vehicles per day on the two-lane sections and 2,350 on the dual two-lane section.
§ Mr. TurtonWill the Parliamentary Secretary give early and serious consideration to the alarming accident record on this section of road, because it is quite inadequate for the number and weight of vehicles using it, as shown by the reply?
§ Mr. SwinglerYes, this is fully recognised, and, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, the entire length of the trunk road A19 from Sunderland to Thirsk and south-westwards up the A168 is now programmed to be converted to dual carriageway. It is being done section by section and all these sections are programmed between now and 1970.