Botched construction job worsens road chaos in Leamington

[dutchman]

Road chaos around Leamington has been made worse by a botched construction job at a key town roundabout, it has been claimed.



The Princes Drive junction near the new Morrison's - altered when the supermarket was built at the start of the year - was not constructed to planning drawings and 30 metres of road is missing. It would have helped release traffic turning left, towards Morrison's, or heading towards the Shires Retail Park.

The mistake emerged this week after months of divertions into Princes Drive because of junction closures in Old Town, although they have now re-opened.

Chris Simpson, principal engineer for highways at Warwickshire County Council, confirmed: "A length of additional road space of approximately 30m on the southbound approach to the Foundry roundabout is missing.

“It has been observed on a number of occasions that this issue in addition to the diverted traffic are major contributing factors to the congestion.”

He added Warwick District Council was looking into it - although development manager at the district council, Gary Fisher, claimed to us that the county council would be investigating the matter.

It is unclear what action either authority will take.

Town resident Andrew Cave contacted the county council after being held up in the jams.

He told the Observer: "I was going through Leamington at 7pm and the traffic was backed up to Dale Street.

"So I emailed and asked if they were sure they'd got it right.

"It's clearly an incredibly well-researched bit of planning and they've been unlucky that High Street has been closed.

"But I want to find out why the mistake wasn't spotted during the construction stage because something should be done.

"It's very much in the public interest to do something because thousands of hours have been wasted on this for people queuing at the junction.

"The original junction was better than the new one and it looks like a terrible mistake."

A spokesman for contractors Birse Civils confirmed the work had been completed several months ago for Warwick District Council but would not comment further.