Summer Traffic Chaos on Leigh Road
Update: 3rd September 2008 - Phase 1 completed. Leigh Road is now open both ways at the Railway station section. However, work is now continuing below the Hartford Road mini-roundabout as work continues on the gas main until February 2009. This will mean a rolling contraflow system will be in place. At rush hour times significant delays may be encountered.
In what to residents seems an annual event, Leigh Road is being dug up, and will be completely closed for seven weeks from Monday, 21 July until Sunday 31 August (seven weeks). The closed stretch is between Daisy Hill station (Hunts Bank footpath) and Hartford Road (mini-roundabout). Along this stretch are: Daisy Hill railway station, the existing station car park (closed) and some residential properties. The new station car park to the north of Daisy Hill railway station will be available (from Friday, 19th July), accessible from the north only.
Work is to be undertaken to replace an old gas pipe, and will continue until February 2009, although once the initial stretch is done, a contraflow system with temporary lights will be put in place whilst work is continued on Leigh Road down Schofield Lane towards the Lovers Lane junction.
Whilst work is timed to coincide with the quieter school holiday period, there is little doubt that for commuters and residents this will be a peak time ‘nightmare’ as one of Westhoughton’s two arterial routes is severed. Traffic will be forced to negotiate residential estates through Daisy Hill (France Street, The Hoskers) and Washacre (Southfield Drive), even Platt Lane (via Gibfield/Atherton) to access Wigan Road (A58) to get to/from the M61 or Bolton. Note: bus routes (516, 540, 615) diverted.
Work at the new Cricket ground at the Hoskers, and the toing and froing of construction vehicles may also have a detrimental effect.
Traffic congestion is one of the key issues for Westhoughton residents; those who have to travel along Leigh Road know just how busy it gets, as what is in effect a 'B' road has to cope with commuters from Daisy Hill - an area that has 'mushroomed' over the years - but also traffic travelling to and from Leigh, Hindley and beyond. The rush hour consequently builds up from 6.30am every weekday. It’s not much fun for people travelling to/from work or school. Quite simply Leigh Road was not designed to cater for the traffic levels we now have – yet still they allow development!
Trade is likely to be affected in Daisy Hill, and possibly Westhoughton town centre, as people avoid the area when it is likely to be clogged up with traffic.
Apparently, the gas company uses a points system for work to have its turn: it does seem quite bizarre that when a road that is dug up so frequently there is not a bias in planning to bring forward medium term work to save inconveniencing the public.
There is not much we can do about it except to grin and bear it – and maybe book a holiday away, that’s if we’ve not been 'credit crunched', and can still afford one!
A call to complete the link road to the M61
Response to a letter that appeared in the Bolton News (7/7/08): Many years ago there was a scheme proposed to build a trunk road – A5225 – a 10.3 mile (16.5 km) dual carriageway that would link the M58 at Orrell, west of Wigan and the M61 at junction 5 (the so-called Wigan, Hindley & Westhoughton bypass). At Westhoughton the dual carriageway was to cut across Lee Hall (green land to the east of Westhoughton).
A scheme that initially at least, in spite of opposition, was actually 'approved' in 1996; it never got off the ground because of a lack of government funding and a move away from building roads as a means of dealing with congestion.
The years have gone by and this scheme has been watered down: Wigan Council's A5225 Gateway sought to develop a mix of dual and single carriageways and bus corridor feeding into employment and residential areas, however failed to secure enough funding - the Wigan alternative scheme was to emerge at junction 4 of the M61, crossing Cutacre and therefore 'missing' Westhoughton. Bolton Council whose section (Westhoughton/Lee Hall) was small, decided the scheme was neither viable nor affordable. The whole scheme was effectively dead, and was cancelled in February 2007.
Any new road scheme would now have to involve private money, and would not in fact deliver the speedy, trunk road 'vision' of the A5225. You only have to look at Atherleigh Way (the Leigh 'bypass') to see what we would end up with - a single carriageway road, with possibly lots of junctions, lights, speed cameras… Private finance would demand profit, so any road would be skirted with housing or retail developments; merely adding to congestion rather than solving the traffic problems - with more of that vital green space around Westhoughton lost to developers.
A bypass might seem like a good idea (perhaps even more so during the coming weeks and months) but chances are, even if money was found for it, it would not be the panacea you might imagine.
Bus services affected by road closure in Westhoughton
GMPTE is advising bus passengers that a number of services running through Westhoughton in Bolton will be affected by roadworks from Saturday 19 July 2008. The routes of the 516, 540 and 615 services through the Washacre area will change due to the temporary closure of Leigh Road for around seven weeks.
The hourly 516 evening and 615 daytime buses will miss out the estate, but the high frequency 540 will follow an extended route through it. 540 services to Wigan will take the normal route to Washacre, and will then follow Townsfield Road, Birch Avenue, Southfield Drive, Wigan Road, Wearish Lane, The Hoskers and France Street to the Grey Man pub, before rejoining the normal route. A temporary stop will be installed on France Street for the 540 service.
People travelling to Leigh can use the 540 to connect with the 516 and 615 services on Wigan Road. Information will be provided at bus stops on Lower Leigh Road, Leigh Road, Washacre and Southfield Drive, which will all be affected by the diversions.
Details as published on GMPTE website 16 july 2008.