M6 Junction 10 work branded 'complete waste of time' as £78m project nears completion

Residents who live adjacent to the M6 Junction 10 works have told the Express and Star that the project to ease traffic congestion is "a waste of time".

The upset comes as the works to finish the project are near completion, with National Highways defending the project, saying that residents will feel the full benefit of the refit later this year.

Brian Powell, a resident of the area, said: "It's a complete waste of money, it hasn't improved anything, the holdups around the island are no different than what they used to be.

"One of the biggest problems is the phasing of the traffic lights, you get across the motorway and the lights turn red, but other lights are still green. If you get two lorries and the lights go to red, you can't move.

"Not only that, but the amount of lanes going around the island is extremely confusing, to get to where I need to go I have to go across three lanes of traffic, then I have to get into another lane. It's not well marked and it's very confusing."

The works are expected to be finished later this year, however, residents say the project is causing issues already, with more traffic being forced to take the route.

Another resident, who didn't want to be named, said: "You can't avoid it, you have to take the route or add an extra ten minutes to your journey, it's almost like all roads lead to it, It's caused a real issue with the traffic here.

"People come speeding down the main road leading onto the island and then they don't get in the right lane and it just turns into chaos, I think it is a huge waste of money in the state that it is."

As well as issues with traffic management along the route, residents have also said they have issues in their own homes due to the works, with a number of houses seeing trees at the back of their properties being demolished without permission.

Speaking about the project, Wendy Holland, who lives on a road directly adjacent to the Black Country Route, said a row of trees on her address were removed to make visibility easier for drivers.

Ms Holland said: "The works were going on at all times of the morning, starting at 10 or 11 at night then going on until six in the morning.

"We have had to have triple glazing in this house, which has been a huge expense. We also had a lot of trees at the back, they have taken those trees down which was a sound barrier for us. We also lost the wildlife."

However, National Highways programme manager, Ashfaq Hussain, said that residents will feel the full benefit of the works when the project is completed.

Ashfaq Hussain said: "In replacing the 50-year-old bridges at the junction we have avoided the need for extensive and repeated maintenance on the structures but also, importantly, been able to increase capacity and improve safety.

"This additional capacity - doubling the number of lanes from two to four - will help tackle delays at this bottleneck junction for the many thousands of drivers who use it every day. The scheme also includes improved accessibility for cyclists and pedestrians.

"This has been a complex project and we appreciate it has caused some disruption but we would ask people to bear with us as we are now in the final straight with the full benefits of the scheme due to be realised in early 2024."