Major Burnley road to close for next stage of multi-million pound improvement works

The next phase of improvements to Rose Grove junction in Burnley will see the heavily-used Accrington Road, to the west of the junction, closed from Monday, January 20th.

Work began in early November on a 12-month project to widen the junction of Accrington Road, Rosegrove Lane and Rossendale Road close to junction 9 of the M65 to manage traffic congestion as the area grows.

It represents a particular engineering challenge as there are a large number of services and utilities which need to be rerouted to allow the highway improvement to take place, with major fibre communication and broadband cables, gas, water and electricity pipes all passing through the junction.

Lancashire County Council was able to keep all four arms of the junction open during the first phase of the work to minimise the impact on residents and businesses.

However Accrington Road now needs to be closed to allow the project to progress.

The £3m scheme is one of the final parts of a programme of improvements to junctions and nearby local roads from Junction 7 at Accrington to Junction 13 at Barrowford, known as the Hyndburn-Burnley-Pendle Growth Corridor.

Simon Bucknell, operations manager, said: "We are trying to minimise disruption as far as possible while these improvements are delivered, which is why we have initially done as much of the work as we can while keeping Accrington Road open.

"However we now need to move onto the work to divert utilities which run across Accrington Road, and progress the widening of the junction.

"This is a very busy junction and we would ask people to find alternative routes if they do not need to travel though this area, and leave extra time for their journeys if they do.

"We're grateful for the understanding that many people have already shown in recognising the need for this scheme, and we're sorry for the inconvenience."

Accrington Road to the west of Rose Grove junction will be closed except for access to homes and businesses, and for pedestrians and cyclists. Access will also remain for visitors to Burnley Crematorium.

The remaining three arms of Rose Grove junction will continue to operate with temporary traffic lights in place.

A diversion will be in place via M65 Junction 10 for traffic to access this area to and from the motorway. A diversion will also be signed via local roads for non-motorway traffic and via Junction 8 for residents and businesses located to the west of the closure.

The programme, which is worth more than £12m in total, is part of the £320m Growth Deal secured from government by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership and includes contributions from Lancashire County Council and Burnley, Pendle and Hyndburn councils.

A contribution to the work at Rose Grove will also come from the Department for Transport's local pinch point fund.