Norfolk takes a broad view to keep the transport moving in Norwich

Norfolk County Council is delivering a wide-ranging programme of improvements to transport in the Greater Norwich area. Andrew Forster met up with the county’s team of transport officers to find out more

Andrew Forster

01 May 2015

Good bus territory: FirstGroup is Norfolk’s biggest operator. Norwich is served by six park-and-ride sites, with services currently operated by Go-Ahead subsidiary Konectbus and Norse Group (pictured), a company wholly owned by the county council. Konectbus has just won the contract to operate all six P&R services from September

Jon Barnard, Norfolk’s NDR and NATS manager, and Tracy Jessop, the county’s assistant director, communities and environmental services

Tom McCabe

Norwich’s proposed Northern Distributor Road will connect the A47 at Postwick to the east of the city, with the A1067 in the north. The council is keen to investigate extending the new road right round to the A47 in the west, creating a complete orbital route. The red hatched area to the north-east of Norwich is the ‘north-east growth triangle’, a proposed urban extension of 7,000-10,000 dwellings, plus employment land

The county of Norfolk conjures up images of the Broads, windmills, country lanes, miles of coastline and quaint villages. But what about its transport? Well, read through back copies of LTT and there’s one project that consumes more column inches than any other: the Norwich Northern Distributor Road (NDR). With an estimated cost of £148.5m this dual carriageway scheme is one of the most expensive local authority transport projects in the country. Norfolk says the road is vital to...