The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Drivers have been promised that Spalding’s endless parade of temporary traffic lights and road closures will soon end.
In recent weeks the town has ground to a halt with roadworks being carried out at West Elloe Avenue, the Twin Sister bridges, Wygate Park, St John’s Road and the town’s level crossings.
This week Mill Green crossing in Woolram Wygate has again been closed, this time for road leveling work to be carried out.
But it has angered some, who claim work is not being carried out as quickly at the crossing as it could be.
One reader, who lives in Clover Way, said he witnessed one young mum admonishing workmen, who were horsing around, taking photos of each other with their heads through railings, while traffic stacked back due to the crossing’s closure.
He said: “The town is absolutely gridlocked. You can’t get anywhere because of the roadworks.
“From where I live you can’t get across Mill Green crossing and you can’t go down the Wygate Park estate because the road is closed down there too.
“There are a lot of very frustrated drivers sitting in queues because of all the roadworks happening at once.”
South Holland district councillor Gary Taylor also criticised the pace of work at Mill Green, saying on Monday workmen downed tools at 3.30pm, despite the crossing being closed for two weeks.
He said: “They seem to be using the road as a car park to store their vehicles.”
A spokesman for Network Rail declined to comment on the pace of work, but said the work on the surface of the crossing and road followed on from the upgrade carried out as part of the multi-million pound investment in the Great Northern Great Eastern railway line and is due to end on November 21.
Lincolnshire County Council said the overlap of many of the roadworks around Spalding had been unplanned but unavoidable.
But it has promised drivers that an end to the traffic chaos is in sight, as no more roadworks are planned until March, except for two Sundays in January when work will be carried out in Winfrey Avenue.A spokesman for Lincolnshire County Council said: “The roadworks in the Spalding area were planned to avoid overlaps, however due to slight delays and changes to scope of work there have been short periods of overlap which is regrettable but unfortunately unavoidable.
“The county council has cancelled its own work on Halmergate and Albion Street to try to limit the impact.”
He said that works on Wygate Park by the Internal Drainage Board had been due to end on Sunday, before the works started at Mill Green crossing on Monday, but had overrun into Monday.
Works were planned to follow on from each other at either end of West Elloe to minimise disruption and St John’s Road works were planned for last Sunday and this Sunday – and are due to be completed on time.
The spokesman added: “There will be benefits to all these roadworks.
“The benefits will be that by relining an existing pipe the Internal Drainage Board have prevent it from collapsing which would have led to a road closure, problems with drainage and much more major works.
“The Network Rail project is the final part in Spalding of an upgrade of the East Coast mainline and whilst inconvenient is essential to maintain the rail service.
“The Western Power work is part of a programme to reinforce the electricity supply for the Spalding area.”
