Dual carriageway for Pensnett High Street in £6.3m congestion easing scheme
A dual carriageway will be introduced in a town centre as part of a proposed £6.3 million scheme aimed at easing congestion.
The road improvements will be carried out along a section of Pensnett High Street, where motorists often face delays, according to latest plans.
Traffic lights will also be introduced on junctions either side of the section, at both High Oak and Tansey Green Road.
The widening of the junction with High Oak will also see the adjoining Bradley Street closed to through traffic.
The council will use a compulsory purchase order to buy land either side of the road to allow for it to be widened for the junctions and dual carriageway.
The proposal will be decided on by Councillor Khurshid Ahmed, cabinet member for transport, next week.
If approved, the work will take a year and could start as early as January 2017.
It comes on the back of a consultation in October last year which saw people back the scheme.
Out of 239 responses last year, 138 'strongly supported' the idea of a dual carriageway on the High Street.
A total of 208 said improvements were needed along the road to drive down delays and safety.
The High Street serves local as well as business traffic and deliveries to Pensnett Trading Estate, which is the largest secured trading estate in Europe.
Around 30,000 vehicles use the road every day.
New pedestrian crossing facilities will also be installed at High Oak and Tansey Green Road under the proposals.
Donna Davies runs Allbreed Grooming Academy on High Oak, near to the junction with High Street.
She said: "It sounds a good idea - the High Street has always been a very busy road, which has got worse over the years.
"More motorists coming down there will also mean extra possible business too."
The cost will be partly funded by a £3.8million award from the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (BCLEP).
Yesterday, Councillor Ahmed said: "This scheme has been long awaited - the road is a bottleneck and is a hold up for traffic going to nearby industrial estates or to Kingswinford.
"Now we have the money it would be silly not to use it to make the situation better for everyone who uses the road."
It comes a year after four weeks' of roadworks took place along a half-a-mile stretch of High Street outside Russells Hall Hospital.
It caused major disruption, with queues stretching back past Russells Hall Hospital.
