MOTORISTS will face even more delays when extra work is carried out to correct a controversial road junction just weeks after it was completed.
Council bosses have revealed more work will have to be carried out at the old Sainsbury’s roundabout in Great Boughton because parts of it are ‘dangerous’.
A six-month scheme to transform the Boughton Heath (Sainsbury’s) roundabout into a so-called ‘hamburger’ roundabout was completed in November.
But since then motorists, business owners and residents have complained the new road layout did not resolve traffic issues because it was confusing and dangerous.
Chester MP Stephen Mosley helped lobby Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) officials to improve the traffic system, which is part of a scheme to help the area cope with more vehicles from the former Saighton Army Camp housing development.
CWaC chief executive Steve Robinson said: “Although the scheme may look complete, council engineers have identified a number of deficiencies that we will be correcting.
“This will include additional signing and road markings to improve lane discipline, and remedial work where the work already done does not come up to our specification.
“We are also aware of queues, particularly on the A41 from Whitchurch, and have ensured these matters are passed onto the traffic signal engineers working for the developer.
“In the next couple of weeks the junction will be linked into Chester’s new urban traffic management control system, and once this is done we are advised there will be an improvement to the operation of the junction.
“There are concerns regarding Toll Bar Road already being considered and the need for a ‘box junction’ has been passed onto the developer. It should be noted we have received a request to ban the right turn out of Toll Bar Road towards Vicars Cross.
If the council chooses to pursue this course of action it would go through the democratic process of advertising the Order, giving people the chance to make objections.”
Mr Mosley said: “I thoroughly understand residents’ concerns about the roundabout, and I am equally sympathetic to CWaC which has had this roundabout forced upon it.
“I know the council is working very hard to monitor the junction to improve its safety and reduce delays and I am optimistic the improvements highlighted by the council will go some way to allaying the fears of many local residents.”
Trish Pugh, 51, who runs Felicity Hat Hire, off Christleton Road, said: “This work is going to give me even more of a headache. It’s great the developers want to look at the problem, but there will be even more upheaval because of the roadworks and more disruption to the business. Why didn’t they do this in the first place?”
Her partner Mike McCormack added: “I live a few hundred yards from the roundabout and it is chaos. They most certainly should look at what damage this is going to do to not just to residents but to the businesses that rely on traffic.
“If they haven’t learned from the last debacle they don’t deserve to be in charge of this thing.”
IT consultant Darren Johnson, 43, from Huntington, said: “It was inevitable they were going to end up having to fix some elements. The major concerns have to do with motorists being confused which way to go. There are dangerous elements for pedestrians and cyclists.”
Steve Fowler, of Great Boughton, added: “I use this junction daily and find there are many problems with it. I hope the work they are carrying out will remedy these problems, particularly as this has been designed to take the increased traffic from a development that hasn’t yet been started.’’