M6 Junction 10 improvements: Five year ultimatum for £65m work

The £65 million overhaul of the M6 Junction 10 island faces the scrap heap if work does not start within five years.

A 2020 deadline has been placed on the project, which aims to improve one of the busiest motorway junctions in the country.

The aim is to cut down on the chronic congestion that cripples the island and motorway every day, improving traffic flow by doubling the number of lanes and building improved bridges.

However, it emerged today that if the 2020/21 deadline isn't hit, the project will be frozen and traffic jams 'exacerbate' in the future.

But Walsall Council highways bosses have come out fighting, promising that the ambitious project will go ahead as planned and be completed by 2020.

Under the initial plans, lanes going over the motorway will increase from two to four with the bridges rebuilt. The M6 slip roads will be widened along with improvements to the Wolverhampton Road and Bloxwich Lane junction. There will also be some modification work to the Black Country Route.

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In a planning application document, Rachel Telfer, senior transport planner at the council, has warned of the potential impact on work not starting. It is currently hoped work will get under way in 2017/18.

She says: "Currently the junction operates beyond its design capacity - the project seeks to address this issue by increasing the width of the bridge, thus also increasing the number of lanes around the circulatory carriageway.

"Replacing the existing structures not only removes the requirement for Highways England to undertake, within approximately the next five years, planned maintenance at J10, and simultaneously allows for capacity improvements to be made.

"Should the council, within that timeframe, be unable to deliver this project, this will lead to intervention by Highways England to replace the existing structures and therefore forgo the opportunity to increase the capacity of the junction.

"This would, in effect, 'freeze' the capacity of the junction at its current inadequate level, with the likely result being to exacerbate congestion and air quality issues in the future."

The junction, at the heart of the Black Country's traffic network in Walsall, currently gets clogged up during peak periods.

It is also congested by traffic from the busy stretch of motorway, which carries up to 160,000 vehicles a day and is often hit by crashes and breakdowns.

The junction is regarded as a key interchange and will help with the regeneration of Walsall, Darlaston, Wednesbury and Willenhall, making it easier for commuters including to get to sites such as the planned Black Country enterprise zone. It also provides a link between Walsall town centre and Wolverhampton city centre.

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Regeneration chief, councillor Mohammed Nazir, said the £65m project will be a big boost and was hopeful it would go-ahead.

"It is going to be benefitting the area," he said. "There is a lot of traffic problems around that junction.

"After so many years of hard work to get something done in and around J10 if it wasn't to go ahead it would not be good news. It would create more problems."

Council bosses have insisted they remain optimistic the scheme will be able to go ahead as planned.

Transport chief, councillor Lee Jeavons, said: "I am optimistic we will be able to jointly work to provide a solution that satisfies both the Highways Agency partners in terms of what they want in terms of repairs and will provide improvements for the people of Walsall."

Matt Crowton, transportation strategy and policy manager at the council, added: "Increasing the capacity at J10 will not only reduce congestion in the area but will also unlock investment and growth in Walsall, as well as protect local jobs.

"The scheme is included as a commitment in Highways England's Roads Investment Strategy for 2015-2020, and in the complementary Black Country Local Growth Deal, so we fully expect the project to be delivered within that time frame.

"We're duty bound to flag up any potential risks assigned to a project of this size and we're working towards delivering the scheme by 2020."

It is anticipated any work will take two years to complete, causing delays in the area. It comes as motorists have faced hold-ups at junction nine at Wednesbury this year while the southbound slip road has been closed during works to the Ray Hall Viaduct, the River Tame Bridge and Wigmore Viaduct.

There has also roadworks and speed restrictions along the M6 between junctions 10a and 13 at Stafford during works to open up the hard shoulder as an extra lane at peak times.