Shropshire Star

Three months of delays as work to start on A53 in Shropshire

Motorists face major disruption when work begins on a three-month scheme to resurface and create a new roundabout on a the A53 in Shropshire.

Published

Yellow signs have been put up warning drivers of roadworks to take place between the Gingerbread man island at Market Drayton and Tern Hill island.

The roadworks are scheduled to start on September 5 and last for 14 weeks.

The main work is the resurfacing of the carriageway between these two locations and the construction of new roundabout to the north-east of Rush Lane.

The new roundabout will provide access from the A53 to a new housing development of 160 new homes.

It comes as developers, David Wilson Homes, are waiting for final planning approval from Shropshire Council.

Alan Rose, land director for David Wilson Homes Mercia, said: "Construction of a new roundabout and access from the A53 will commence in the autumn with house building starting following receipt of the reserved matters consent.

"We hope to have the first homes ready to move into by next summer."

In addition between October 18 and November 29, the resurfacing work will extend to cover Tern Hill roundabout and the other three approaches to it.

Resurfacing on the Hodnet side of the A53 will be between Lostford Junction and the roundabout.

Northwards on the A41 the work is described as going as far as Bletchley, while to the south the section to be resurfaced extends to Sweet Appletree Crossroads.

Officials say the roads will not be closed during the work but traffic will be controlled by a mixture of two-way and multi-way signals.

A spokesman for Market Drayton Fire Station posted on Facebook: "As you can imagine with both the A53 and A41 being major arterial routes these road works are likely to cause delays and queuing traffic at times.

"Be prepared and plan ahead."

Shropshire Council was unavailable for comment.

Elsewhere more than 5,000 tonnes of surfacing material is currently being used to improve the A529 north of Adderley, near Market Drayton.

Due to the width and alignment of the road, it has been closed to traffic from 9am until 5pm on weekdays since July 25.

Shropshire Council said it had originally hoped to reopen the road on August 31 before the school term restarted. But due to complications the road closure will continue until September.

Workmen say they are 'working as hard as they can' to get the road re-opened as soon as possible but they are currently a week behind schedule.

During term time the road will be closed between 9am and 2.45pm during the week to allow the children to be dropped off and picked up from school. It will be open at the weekend, evenings and early morning.

For more details go to shropshire.roadworks.org

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.