More roadworks misery for Burnley motorists

Burnley motorists faced more traffic misery this week as three major roadworks projects continued to affect main routes into town.
Roadworks at the Barracks Road roundabout.Roadworks at the Barracks Road roundabout.
Roadworks at the Barracks Road roundabout.

As schools returned after the summer holidays, increasing the volume of traffic, there were tailbacks at all major gateways into and out of Burnley.

The closure of Trafalgar Street for resurfacing works for the last two weeks has created problems for drivers making their way into the town centre, while traffic has been queueing from the Barracks Road roundabout, where roadworks are also being carried out, and along the M65 as repairs to safety barriers along the eastbound stretch of the motorway between Burnley and Nelson are being completed.

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Bosses at Lancashire County Council said Trafalgar Street is due to re-open tomorrow (Saturday). They said some line painting will still need to be finished but disruption will be kept to a minimum.

At the Barracks Road roundabout contractors are widening carriageways to give an extra lane on the roundabout and also widening approaches.

A Lancashire County Council spokesman said traffic signals will be installed on the roundabout which will provide a signalled pedestrian crossing across Burnham Gate.

Work should be finished by the end of September. The spokesman said work has been carried out in the evenings to avoid excessive disruption but there has been no scheduled work for the last couple of weeks because it is on the route of the diversion created by the Trafalgar Street closure.

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Most of the physical work has now been done and the next phase is to install the traffic lights and controllers.

Meanwhile county council bosses said work to repair safety barriers on the eastbound and westbound carriageways on the M65 was on schedule.

Delays are now only affecting the eastbound carriageway where work is due to be finished by mid-October. County council bosses said work will continue on bridges over the carriageway until the end of December but should not affect traffic flow.

Mr Michael White, street works manager for Lancashire County Council, said: “We understand it can feel frustrating when there is more than one set of roadworks in their town at the same time.

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“We have very little or no control over some works, such as when a utilities company has to carry out urgent repairs.

“We do think carefully about when to carry out works and sometimes we will do them together at times when there is less traffic, such as during the school summer holidays.

“We’d ask the residents of Burnley to bear with us and we hope they’ll find the road improvements are worth any short delays during this period.”