Junction hell ‘to ease’ for fed-up drivers

Workers are making changes to the A585 near Windy Harbour in a £3m scheme to cut jams and ease traffic flow.

But last week lane closures were put in place either side of the junction with a four-way signal control to allow vital work to be carried out, causing huge tailbacks all the way to the M55 at peak times.

But from today the work will revert to narrow lanes and the use of existing signals.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said: “We would like to thank drivers for their patience last week while we had lane closures in place on each of the approaches to the Windy Harbour junction.

“We needed to close the lanes so that we could relocate the traffic lights at the junction. This work has now been completed and the lanes have reopened, which means traffic can again flow in both directions.

“The £3m project currently taking place at the junction is designed to have a significant long-term benefit by tackling congestion in the area.”

Coun Peter Gibson from Wyre Council said: “Traffic at the Windy Harbour stretch and at West Drive has been horrendous.

“It has been causing a lot of problems even at seven in the morning, but when it is done it will obviously improve the flow of traffic. The question is, will it just speed the flow of traffic to Singleton crossroad only to back up again? However, the £50m the Government recently announced for the A585 improvement will hopefully deal with that too.”

The work began on November 14 and is expected to last four months with some night time lane closures. Traffic will be managed by a series of temporary signal control and a 30mph speed limit.

It involves realignment and widening of the existing crossroads to create extra lanes through the junction.

Coun David Henderson who has a business at the Poulton Industrial estate said the road had been a nightmare and he had to talk an engineer coming to do work at his printing firm through the road system as the road from the M55 was gridlocked. 
He said: “While we accept the alterations to the road are a necessity and will hopefully offer some relief to commuters when they are finished, the infrastructure should have been improved years ago and should have been looked at in the Poulton area in the round.”