Penn Road traffic widening delayed by weather

The opening of a new lane built to ease jams on a stretch of Wolverhampton's ring road has been delayed by heavy rain.

The first phase of work to widen the Penn Road island as part of a £1.2 million project to tackle congestion was due to be completed yesterday.

But while new traffic lights have been switched on as planned, council chiefs said today carriageway resurfacing work was unable to go ahead because of heavy downpours that swept through the region.

Bob Willis, Wolverhampton City Council's service manager for traffic management, said: "Unfortunately, the inclement weather over the weekend prevented us from completing all the planned work on the Penn Road island.

"The new traffic lights have been successfully installed and switched on but the heavy rain throughout Saturday and into yesterday meant we were unable to resurface the carriageway.

"We would not have been able to put down new road markings on the lane towards Penn Road."

An overnight closure of the outbound A449 Penn Road at its entrance with the ring road had been planned for Saturday to allow work to go ahead but it did not happen.

Council bosses today said that the work would be rescheduled, although a date has not yet been fixed.

Penn Road continues to be accessible from Ring Road St John's. Roadworks began in March to widen the outside lane between the ring road and Penn Road.

As part of it, an extra lane heading towards Penn Road has been built, with the work leading to some hold-ups for drivers.

The existing lane leading to Penn Road, which has been fenced off as part of the scheme, is due to reopen at the same time.

The lane widening is part of a wider £5m project to transform the congested island, although funding is yet to be found for the final two phases.

The next phase of work will see a popular skate park located in the sunken island dismantled and put into storage.