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Blackpool’s new Promenade cracking up
Shared space area near Blackpool Tower
BLACKPOOL’S multi-million pound Promenade is breaking under the strain of traffic – just months after opening.
The Gazette counted at least 14 potholes, broken paving slabs and sunken areas on the stretch of shared space between New Bonny Street and Talbot Square. There were too many areas with minor defects and missing mortar to count.
It comes as traders on Waterloo Road, South Shore, raised the same concerns about £1.3m of new roadworks in their areas failing within months of being laid – as trader Darren Thickett today pointed out.
Our survey of the Promenade’s ‘shared space’ area – between the Comedy Carpet and Blackpool Tower – followed complaints from lorry and taxi drivers about the state of the newly-opened road (right).
Bill Lewtas of the Blackpool Licensed Taxi Association said: “We’ve noticed the new Prom is breaking up already.
“When you consider it’s only a few months since it was created, it’s very disappointing.
“We would hope the contractors will be putting this right at no cost to Blackpool Council.”
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John Donnellon, Blackpool Council’s service director for the built environment, confirmed there were problems.
He said: “There are a few small-scale defects in the paving which the contractor has already investigated and is repairing.
“Some of these repairs are being done overnight to minimise traffic disruption.
“It should be remembered that the paved area, which is 500 metres long and covers some 15,000 square metres, is fit to meet all traffic demands and the problems, while not welcome, are small scale and being promptly repaired.”
The shared space area, part of the £14m Festival Headland project, is designed for pedestrians and traffic to use with minimal divisions – kerbs are almost non-existent and different stones in the surface mark where the road layout is.
FOR MORE ON THIS STORY SEE FRIDAY’S GAZETTE.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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Comments
There are 90 comments to this article
Page 1 of 6
Cynical Observer
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 09:49 PMWell... the whole prom is a Callow project. 4 years of Callow is going to cost us millions to sort out. Not just the crumbling prom but the millions of pounds of property sold for £3...... I am not a Liberal or a Labour supporter but can't help wondering how better another group could have handled the Callow Years of Plenty. erm...has the 'cracking up' been caused by reading the comedy carpet?
Lord Rupert Astor St Clair
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 06:03 PMThis was always promoted as a shattered space, sorry I mean shared space!
Charles Lightoller
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 03:14 PMWhat's happened to todays story about the prom' road breaking up? It was there at lunch time and when I came home it had gone!
Nothappy
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 01:06 PMI agree with Cllr Blackburn the contractors need to be held to account over this and it is they who need to foot the bill for the repairs.
Renshaw Woods
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:18 PM#82 rukstar. If you want to talk about bad preparation you want to see the prom in front of North Pier. They are now laying new tarmac straight on top of old. Prep?? None. Will last 5 mins
Vampire Squirrel
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 12:48 AMThe council have done this on purpose in my opinion, it's all a ruse so they can say the traffic is damaging the Prom and then they have an excuse to pedestrianise it, I have thought this from the very start of this 'shared space' being created. Why do you think they have positioned bikes all along the Prom? It's no coincidence. And to those who say it can't be pedestrianised because it's an A road, well they did it to Church Street, which according to any map I've ever owned is part of the A583! The council don't want cars clogging the roads up hence the reason they're making it harder for people to get from one end of town to the other all the time!
Sheepdog
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 02:10 PMWhy is anybody surprised that the brick paved road is sinking, cracking & generally falling apart? You dont have to be a road engineer to understand why, bricks laid on sand, the sand takes time to settle, it rains, the sand shrinks & the bricks then become uneven on the sand & passage over by buses , trucks & cars after a few weeks produces the mess we have now. Theres a reason they put cast concrete down in bus stations & freight yards where heavy trucks stand. Modern schemes like these are just expensively cheap jobs that look pretty , but are just total wastes of money that acheive nothing in the long run except more money needing to be spent to rectify it all. Surely it must have dawned on people that you dont find mnay A roads trunk roads that are 'brick' paved, tarmc usualy being the preffered material given the volume of traffic that use A roads trunk roads. The patch up jobs are required beause they dont use the method they do in Rome. In Rome the swirly patterns are acheived by using shaped stones that dont need cementing in hence when they have work to do, they crow bar them up, keep them numbered & then when they've done hammer them back into place. Certain councilors need surcharging for the money wasted on these tin pot deck chair re-arrangement schemes that have blighted the town. Blackburn should get his backside in gear & get the auditors in & see how much money was wasted, who pocketed what & who believed the yarn spun that the bricks would be upto the job. The only place where brick paved shared road spaces work are on residential side streets to eliminate kerbs etc for pushchairs, wheelchairs etc & reduce the speed on these minor roads where justa few cars a day pass over them. Quite how thick youve got to be to be a councilor in Blackpool fair boggles the mind, you seriously do wonder at the mental state of some of the occupants of the council chambers & the people who come up with these monumental odes to mediocrity that the lemons in the town hall rubber stamp without any thought or brain power applied.
maxfan
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 08:55 AMNo 80 Do you find some staff reluctant to serve you at times Its commonly called a Tk
wrukstar
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 12:27 PMJust look at every new strech of pavement in the last three years around blackpool and the quality of the ground prep is shocking . Dickson road and talbot roads new pavements are a complete mess , cracking and sinking all over the place . Bloomfield roads new pavements ( that looks like vomit coloured tarmac ) suffering the same fate . Crap Workmanship that has been rushed because we all complain of the disruption . After all that investment we should be really seeking the contractor to remedy their works as the quality is shocking . Amatuers could do a better job .
bigjeff
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 10:53 AMI crack up every time I go past the wedding chapel
westonbill
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 06:19 PMTo ken WAlker N0.72 -- no need for push bikes. Order on-line and have it delivered for free -- A strange set up but it works for me (up to now) - If I go into a large Electrical store - I would have to pay the advertised price -plus a delivery charge..-- I now go into the showroom - view the item - even have it demonstrated -- I then go home , order on line and have it delivered within 2 Days For free -- I haven't got a bike anyway!
Blackpools Finest
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 04:15 PMComment removed by moderator
idowantthat
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 03:24 PMpost 72 Ken Walker - don't be silly, I have a big 4x4 SUV for carrying my 50"LCD tellys home! - i only cycle for pleasure. to answer a previous post, I do about 25,000 miles a year, using a 3.0ltr diesel engine - i do believe that we don't pay enough for our motoring though - i truly do, we have no idea the damage a litre of petrol diesel does so how can we tax it properly? - as for the congestion charge, well it's coming isn't it - manchester next, then us. also with new regs, you won't be able to take a car over 7yrs old into towns regardless of c charge - bring it on i say, it'll get the peasants and their old polluting rust buckets off the road and make the roads quieter the rest of us.
sailorjim
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 01:03 PMwaste of money as usual, like poulton, they.re replacing perfectly good pathways in parks yet leaving broken pavement flags for years , maybe we should start falling over these flags and sueing.
Sarky Bar Steward
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 11:58 AMIs the big attraction for the forthcoming season more roadworks?
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