Disruption due to the closure of part of Wardentree Lane in Pinchbeck has ‘not been too horrendous’ a Highways official has said in an update on road projects in Spalding.
Sam Edwards, Lincolnshire County Council’s head of highways infrastructure gave updates on the A16 roundabout works and Spalding Western Relief Road at a meeting recently.
He was asked by Coun Tom Ashton about the traffic that would normally come from the A16 through Wardentree Lane Industrial Estate being directed through Pinchbeck and Surfleet.
“Generally there’s been nothing too horrendous,” Mr Edwards told the meeting of the Highways Scrutiny Panel.
“I’ve spoken to a number of large scale businesses in the area and a couple of times since the road closure went in place,” he said. “I expressed normally the first week is pretty bad but people get used to it.
“The perception is usually worse than the reality and they agree with that.
“Yes there is some disruption and we’ve never hidden from that, it was always going to be a reality.
“I’ve had very few complaints and concerns. Usually the public are not shy with raising their concerns and we’ve had very little.
“We can’t do the works without closing the road but what we have done is minimised the period to eight weeks rather than the whole duration, and we’ve doubled the resources working in their to minimise disruption as much as possible.”
Mr Edwards continued that work was ‘going well’ and due to be completed ‘the early part of next year’.
On the work at the A16 Springfields/McDonald’s roundabout, he continued: “The job’s going really well
“Whoever built the roundabout in the first place put the culvert, an exposed drain, in the middle of the roundabout.
“It’s somewhat difficult to work around, which is some of the challenges in delivering it.
“It’s restricted some of our work areas which is why it’s taken longer than some people think it might have.
“We are coming towards the end in the next few months.”
Mr Edwards said work on the actual road part of the first section of the Spalding Western Relief Road was due to finish next month, though finishing work, including restoring Two Plank Bridge, would go on into November.
He spoke to the panel about reasons for delays including the 1,666 piles that had to be installed.
“As with building anything in Spalding, the ground conditions are so poor, if you put too much weight it just pushes the ground away and you need to stablise it as well as reduce the weight going down,” he said.
