Transport and Infrastructure

The Shipley Eastern Relief Road will relieve congestion in Shipley town centre by creating a bypass to the east, connecting the A6037 Valley Road / Canal Road and A6038 Otley Road. The Relief Road will also provide a second crossing of the River Aire at Shipley and create vehicle access to two large local development areas: the Dockfield Lane regeneration zone (currently accessed only from Dockfield Road, a cul-de-sac) and the area of land directly adjacent to the south side of the rail station.

Stage 4 also includes a number of important additional measures, including:

• a high occupancy vehicle lane on Leeds Road to encourage car sharing and bus use;
• bus lanes on Otley Road to improve bus reliability through Shipley and;
• improved pedestrian and cycle access into the town centre and rail station from Windhill to encourage walking and cycling

The large volumes of traffic passing through the town on their way to and from Wharfedale, Airedale and Bradford cause congestion on all approaches to Shipley town centre.

These large volumes of traffic, coupled with poor pedestrian crossing facilities, sever Shipley rail station from the rest of the town centre and its bus interchange facilities. The queuing traffic impacts on the quality of the town centre and is a limiting factor for the regeneration of the whole Airedale corridor.

Shipley and the Airedale area has the potential to attract both businesses and tourists but this potential cannot be fully realised due to the problems caused by traffic congestion.

Stage 4 of the Connecting Airedale: Bradford–Shipley Canal Corridor Transport scheme will support the development of the corridor as a key area of regeneration, housing and employment growth by providing a transport system needed to support growth.

The Shipley Eastern Relief Road as part of Stage 4 seeks to divert traffic from Shipley town centre, thus providing relief from traffic congestion, public transport reliability problems, delay and the local and global environmental impacts of traffic congestion. The other elements of Stage 4 will encourage travellers to shift to more sustainable modes of transport thereby increasing the overall benefits of the scheme.