West Midlands bank holiday: Prepare to be delayed
Thousands of people attending West Midland Safari Park and Severn Valley Railway face traffic chaos this bank holiday due to delays to a roadworks scheme.
National Grid contractors are carrying out work to replace old metal gas pipes and have installed temporary traffic lights along Chester Road North, in Kidderminster.
Work was to have been completed by this weekend but officials today said the project was now going to overrun.
It is now set for completion on September 2 - meaning delays are expected over the August bank holiday.
Roadworks taking place in and around the town over the summer months have already been criticised.
Councillor Fran Oborski said she had received a number of calls, e-mails and been contacted over Facebook from furious residents complaining of traffic grinding to a halt because of major roadworks on all routes into the town at the same time.
And she said the schemes being delayed was just making the situation worse.
"These works on Chester Road North being delayed is just unacceptable," she said.
"When you have projects taking place on roads the timing has to be exact and the schedule has to be adhered to.
"They have to be completed on time to minimise disruption.
"This will cause even more disruption over the bank holiday when a lot of people are on the roads."
Councillor Oborski added that she received a number of complaints about the situation from angry residents and motorists.
National Grid spokesman Jane Taylor said the delays were due to engineers deciding to replace an addition length of pipes in the road.
They say if work is carried out now it will prevent an additional replacement project at a later date.
"We are sorry for the delays and the inconvenience but it will be better for doing this work in the long term," Ms Taylor said.
The Chester Road roadworks are just the latest project to impact on motorists driving around Wyre Forest in recent weeks.
Severn Trent Water has been repairing a collapsed sewer at Sion Hill, Kidderminster, between the A449 Stourbridge Road and Upton Road.
National Grid Gas has also installed temporary traffic lights at Belbroughton Road, Blakedown.
Western Power Distribution set up lights at Wilden Lane, between Hillary Road junction and Marsh Farm to enable heavy volt cables to be reinforced.
