Sponsored by
Anger over damage to Promenade
Prom works cartoon
DAMAGE to Blackpool’s multi-million pound Promenade has been branded “beyond acceptable” by the resort’s council leader.
Coun Simon Blackburn says he resents the additional cost and inconvenience caused by blunders in the scheme.
Now town hall highways chiefs are set to hold meetings with the contractors and the project’s designers in a bid to find a solution.
The Gazette exclusively revealed on Friday at least 14 potholes, broken paving slabs and sunken areas had appeared on the stretch of shared space between New Bonny Street and Talbot Square, as well as other minor defects.
Coun Blackburn said: “The ongoing saga of the new Prom continues.
“While it is to be expected there would be some settling of the road, the damage that has been highlighted by The Gazette goes beyond what I would consider to be acceptable.
“We hope to be able to finalise the audits that have been carried out in respect of disabled accessibility and safety within the next fortnight. At that stage we will sit down with the contractors and the original designers and establish a way forward.
“While I’m growing accustomed to cleaning up the mess left by the last administration, I do resent the additional budget pressures and inconvenience to Blackpool residents which essential repairs and remodelling will inevitably cause.”
Conservative group leader Coun Peter Evans said the fault lay with the contractors not the Tory administration.
He said: “I have been at the forefront of raising concerns about what has gone wrong.
“But it is obvious it’s the quality of the materials that have been used which has caused the problems and my belief is any remedial work will be done at the expense of the contractor.
“There may be some cost regarding any tweeking of the scheme but you can only go on the advice you are getting and assume it is going to be right.”
The new Prom is part of the £14m Festival Headland which also includes the Comedy Carpet.
It has been designed for use by both traffic and pedestrians.
An independent assessment of the new layout was ordered by councillors last August in the wake of complaints from residents and disabled groups about its safety.
There was outcry when the road was closed until June last year to enable the work to be carried out.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Blackpool
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: West
Comments
There are 77 comments to this article
Page 1 of 6
mum_of_the_boys
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 05:37 PM76 westonbill,maybe hes been banned.
westonbill
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 06:12 PMTo Chas Lightoller no 58 - i think Sir hof has followed your advise and carried out his threat of moving to the east of the m6 already -- Haven't noticed a post from him for a few days
markymarkbfc
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 03:20 PMi can't believe they have done this again,you only have to look at the mess they made with that so called traffic island on lytham roadwaterloo road to see the bricks are not going to take the shear volumes of traffic,they are all breaking up too,do the council not look at previous mistakes and learn from them,obviously not
Sheepdog
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:37 PMTamp the sand down all you like , its still unsuitable for a main trunk road , any other main trunk roads in the UK that use sand & bricks? Contractors are contractors, all in a rush to complete to avoid the penalty clauses, all using the same approach to civil engineering, why do you think the railways are suffering, using companys that dig gas mains to relay track? Surely a traffic count before the scheme was enacted would have shown that the sheer amount of vehicles using the road & the amount of buses & trucks would have deemed the idea of bricks on sand unsuitable? Either the roads a trunk road or not, decide what it is & then design a scheme accordingly, not some bodged fudge of trying to get a main trunk road to look pretty & still carry heavy flows of traffic. But then you have people who design these schemes who just havent got a clue, selling nonsense schemes to gullable councils who cant understand that schemes like these are disasters waiting to happen.
Frustrated
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 02:01 PMDon't you think this is the result of using contractors from outside the area? Sand needs serious tamping down - not the cursory attempt at it that you'd get away with on other soil structures.
Shazbat
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:51 AMAt# 71- Sheepdog....... My thoughts exactly...
Sheepdog
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:02 AMWho would have guessed that bricks laid on sand , would start to crack & sink under the weight of buses , trucks & cars. Theres a reason they use cast concrete at bus stations & in yards that are served by HGV's. Using this type of surface on a trunk road was always doomed to fail, & the whole scheme is nothing more than pedestriansation by stealth. The whole lot of it needs digging up, replacing with tarmac & the bricks dumped outside the councilors homes who authorised this bufoonery. What we have in Blackpool is a lot of expensively cheap & nasty tat being passed off as engineering. Its rubbish that will look three times as bad in the coming years than the worn out dross it replaced. Go to places like Rome & see real brick paving schemes & you'll see that the work done here is derisory, poorly thought out & generally a bodged rush job designed to look nice , but in reality serving no real useful purpose other than massage the instigators vanity or ego. The issue affecting the prom are not minor, poor quality infill, not enough settlement time, mass use of sand , the sand sinks , it rains so the sand shrinks & so the bricks , slabs laid on will crack , break when weight is run over them. The contracts will be written in stone & you'll find that its the taxpayers who'll be lumbered with the costs of putting this vanity project right & therefore its those who authorised it who should be surcharged
sparky
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 09:00 AMhi it would have made sence to get the inmates out to do the orignal work they seem to take pride in there work then they could say i was there doing a good job for the community paying some thing back
Mamazapp
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:14 AMWoops! did I say administration in my other statement?----What I ment to say was ----Regime--. Well not unlike this new Regime we all know it aint gonna get any better-----IS---IT---!!!
Mamazapp
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:09 AMHmph!! All you have to do is look at St Johns Square, and Church street to see the mess that was made of the stones, Massive cracks all over the joint, Trees that will if ever take root, a bus shelter that has now doubled up as a bike rack, a Winter Gardens half finished with nothing in there eccept wind when there should be shops,stalls,events for everyone not just namby pamby dancers.____And has no one spotted the fact that the fountains are never on and the steel arches are never litt up and the big willies with the ball on the ends are very rarely working, and Talbot road now has another even more tacky charity shop and a Home bargains which has very-----very limited stock compaired to all its other branches! Strikes me this council are full of bad smelling wind and its spreading like hellfire. They cannot blame this on the old administration even if they try.
Pinky1707
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:06 PMSeasideandy (Post 49) You took the words right out of my mouth. I said exactly the same thing when they put them in. It will also be interesting to see what sort of bottleneck the new Talbot Square layout will result in. It's bad enough going southbound along the prom through Talbot Square at the moment. So heaven help us when all the traffic from Talbot Road is trying to get on the prom from one lane. Something else to look forward to I suppose.
Removed
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:19 PMTo 58 they are not minor problems, these could become major problems if people damage their cars or anyone happens to have a bad fall there could be a multitude of claims against the council. And as for moving somewhere else i am happy where i am i just like to see work getting done to the high standard it should be in the first place especially when its the moaning minnies of this forum thats paying for it through council and income TAX.
RobVanHilly
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:06 PMTHIS MAKES ME ANGRY. THIS WAS REPORTED ON EARLIER TODAY, AND STILL NO REPLY FROM THE COUNCIL. !!!
Charles Lightoller
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 09:59 PM(#63) More negativity. You and 'NegativePete' make a good pair! lol
raffy
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 09:56 PM58- this forum isn't just about moaning, its about expressing a view and often about challenging a situation. You expect problems along the way, of course, but when a contract is signed off and finalised you would expect the problems to be minimal. Wonder if when the Olympic Villiage is completed the organisers will have the same argument. Oh sorry, we can't hold this event but obviously there will be problems when something has taken 5 years to produce. Why shouldn't something be right first time?? #57 - care to expand?
Page 1 of 6
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.