The end could soon be in sight for beleaguered Chaddlewood motorists who have become frustrated at the inaction in finishing off a junction improvement scheme which started earlier this year.
Work at the junction of Glen Road with Hillcrest Drive ground to a halt some months ago and nothing evident has happened at the junction since, leaving it difficult to negotiate due to obstructed vision and a narrowed turning area for those entering it from the Westfield direction.
Workers downed tools after finding they could not finish off the works due to the presence of underground cabling belonging to Openreach and this resulted in an impasse while Barrett David Wilson Homes (BDWH), Openreach and Plymouth City Council debated between them how to resolve the problem.
It is understood that as part of a Section 106 agreement attached to planning permission to build a nearby housing estate BDHW homes were required to carry out various alterations in Glen Road, including amending the layout of the roundabout at the Hillcrest Drive junction and introducing extra lanes to it.
Openreach blamed the delay on BDWH’s alleged failure to ensure the safety of the underground cabling before the works started. A spokesperson for Openreach said:
“Barratt David Wilson Homes commenced highway works at the junction of Hillcrest Drive and Glen Road without engaging with Openreach to make sure our telecommunications infrastructure would be protected during the works.
Some of our ducting will need to be moved in order for the works to be completed and we are working with BDWH and Plymouth City Council to make sure this will be done in a way that will not compromise the integrity of our infrastructure”.
After months of the issue being batted back and forth, however, some signs of progress have at last emerged. A spokesperson for Barratt David Wilson Homes said:
“We apologise for the inconvenience and are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. We’ve been in discussion with Openreach since earlier this year and have now agreed a way forward to complete the works.”
An announcement on when the remaining works will finally get underway has yet to be made and while the alterations at the junction are intended to improve the road, not everyone agrees the changes are an improvement – and some are even calling for the work to be backfilled in and the original layout reinstated.
One local motorist posted on the Plympton Podcast Facebook page saying:
“I use it everyday and apart from the fact that the lanes are impossible for larger vehicles, the visibility for motorists is very very poor. How on earth this is an improvement baffles me.”
Another seemed to strike a chord, judging by the number of likes to the post, by remarking:
“Just backfill it all in, scrap the dangerous ‘extra lane’ at the roundabout and revert it back to how it was, it was far less dangerous than it is now!”
The new layout does however look set to stay once the remaining work is finished off.
(Story courtesy of The Plympton Podcast).
