‘Difficult’ road works ‘worth it’

Travelling along the A16 during a year’s worth of roadworks on two roundabouts is going to be ‘difficult’ a councillor has claimed, but added it will be worth it in the long run.

On Tuesday Lincolnshire County Council’s Cabinet backed plans to widen and improve the road’s junctions near Greencell and Springfields/McDonald’s costing around £15m.
Work is due to start on the latter around September/October and the former in July.
Coun Richard Davies, executive member for Highways, called it “really good news” and would make “a real difference” when complete.
“There’s is a lot of lorries going down there and these two junctions have for a long time been identified as pinch points,” he said. “The Springfields scheme in particular is going to be very complex to deliver.
“While it’s great news it’s happening I would point out I think traffic management will make travelling along this route while the work is done difficult.”
Sam Edwards, head of highways and infrastructure told the meeting that the A16 will not be closed at any time, but some connecting roads, including the A151, would face overnight closures.
He said part of the reason there was not scheduled night closures of the A16, was because of the level of freight traffic through the night and that fact any diversion would have to come through Norfolk.
The council’s executive director of place Andy Gutherson said it had been “honest and open” about the problems during the works
“The industry sector, particularly the food sector, do realise the benefits this will bring,” he continued. “There’s often noises in the press why don’t we dual the A16 and A17.
“We’ve demonstrated with previous works that if you deal with the roundabouts the increase in flow is significant. It keeps the transport moving and we all know the cost of dualling long stretches are significantly more expensive.
“This is a cost effective way of making a significant difference that brings benefits for our economy.”
The meeting was told the potential for a footbridge was still open, but it was currently too expensive due to the work that would have to be carried out, and it would take the authority past the deadline for spending more than half of Levelling Up funding.
A pedestrian crossing would stop the traffic and a subway would be too costly and encourage anti-social behaviour, officers told the meeting.
Leader Coun Martin Hill said: “In the future, subject to funding constraints, something could be planned away from the roundabout.
“These are very busy roundabouts. People elsewhere in the county think they have problems but these are really busy, especially with HGVs.”