A41 West Bromwich tunnel dig starts

A major milestone in a £25 million congestion busting project was reached today as work started on digging a tunnel under a junction in West Bromwich.

Diggers have begun shifting the soil between the walls of the underpass at the A41 Expressway, where the road will go under the All Saints Way island.

The scheme aims to cut congestion in the town and will see a dual-carriageway underpass run beneath the roundabout where The Expressway meets All Saints Way.

The roundabout, next to West Bromwich fire station, is one of the borough's busiest junctions, carrying 63,000 vehicles a day.

The walls of the tunnel were constructed last year.

It is hoped that the new development will improve traffic flow for drivers using the island going from West Bromwich to Birmingham and limit the number of cars on the new roundabout.

It is also hoped the underpass will speed up journeys in and around the regenerated town, set to become home to a £200 million shopping and leisure development being built by Tesco.

Sandwell's highways boss Councillor Derek Rowley said: "This is a lengthy project but it is great to see the work to dig out the underpass has begun. The scheme has been around a decade, so to see the area starting to change is great."

The Department for Transport has invested £22m into the scheme, with Tesco contributing £2.2m.

It is hoped the underpass will be ready by late 2011.

Temporary traffic signals are in place on the Expressway, allowing new entry slip roads to be built for the reshaped roundabout, while the former All Saints depot can be developed by BT Liberata at the same time.

A webcam monitoring the progress of the works can be viewed at www.sandwell- a41.co.uk