Update. King Street will not be closed on 2 and 3 July. The Broadgate roadworks are expected to be completed on 5 July.
It is roadworks season. Longer days. Better weather. The need to catch up after the epidemic. The Conservatives election pledge to fix the county’s potholes. Work to connect developments to the road system. Much needed maintenance of rail networks. All are contributing to a summer surge of fixing and upgrading.
The Broadgate has been closed for emergency works. And it is not known when they will be complete. I have asked that King Street is not closed at the same time. There will be closures on Sheet Road and Sandpits, as well works to patch up poorly executed resurfacing on Dinham and Linney. The level crossing on Long Lane in Craven Arms will be closed for an upgrade, leading to disruption to rail services and traffic.
The King Street closure on Friday and Saturday will otherwise continue until social distancing is lifted by the government. That is currently expected to be on 19 July.
Sheet Road
Sheet Road will be closed between the Eco Park and Squirrel Lane from 12 July to 22 August. This is for works to creating the entrance to the Shropshire Homes housing development. This will require relocated services in the highway. That’s why the closure is so long. Shropshire Council’s highways officers and Shropshire Homes say they hope the work will go more quickly. It is hoped that traffic lights can be used during some of the work, which will include carriageway surfacing. The diversion is from the Sheet roundabout down to Ashford Carbonell and then towards Caynham looping back to Sheet. There will inevitably be extra traffic on Squirrel Lane. Shropshire Council has asked for additional signage to be provided. A few weeks back we held a street meeting in Lower Ledwyche to discuss solutions to the problems of HGVs using Squirrel Lane as through route. We are hoping that ‘no access for HGVs’ signage can be agreed for both ends of the lane.
Dinham and Linney
Dinham was due to closed for three days to resurface the resurfacing that was not done properly on 5 July 2020 by contractors from Norwich. After discussions with council officers, the work has been restricted to 18:00 to 20:00 tomorrow, 1 July. The work is only expected to take around an hour. Similar works will take place from 1 to 3 July on Linney.
Sandpits Road
Sandpits Road has had more than its fair share of closures over the last year as utilities have been relocated and upgraded. The road will be closed again outside the school between 16 and 20 August to resurface the road, add new marking and signs and a raised table to slow traffic. See my earlier article for details of the scheme.
Long Lane and rail closures
Long Lane is the road to the household recycling centre in Craven Arms. We have all been caught there waiting for the barrier gates to open. It turns out the rail track and crossing need a major upgrade. This will involve relaying three miles of track near Craven Arms station. Long Lane will be closed to vehicle traffic from Monday 5 to Friday 9 July to allow work to install cabling ahead of the track work. It will subsequently be closed from Monday 17 September to Monday 22 November. I am a little puzzled why the closure is 24×7 as railway workers no longer work on live lines and the work will be overnight except when the line is closed at weekends. The line will be closed for four weekends in September and October. Overnight closures will be from 11pm to 9.40am. It is not clear if this will affect early morning trains.
The state of the roads
Shropshire Council is making a major drive to improve the state of the county’s roads. Station Road in Whittington has been completed much to the trumpeting of Steve Charmley, the cabinet member for highways, who is also the council member for Whittington. Work has also begun in Oswestry. Market Drayton is next in line followed by Bridgnorth and Ludlow. We are due to see more details of the programme next week.