Caerphilly County Borough Council has confirmed that changes to the traffic management at Caerphilly’s PwllyPant roundabout will be made tomorrow. Thursday, November 30.
Two lanes will be open on the A469 Llanbradach bypass southboaud, meaning traffic will not be required to merge into one lane when travelling towards the roundabout, which is also known as the Cedar Tree roundabout.
Two lanes will also be available around the roundabout, which the council claim will help improve capacity and traffic flow at the junction.
Cllr Sean Morgan, deputy leader of council, said: “We welcome these changes which will no doubt bring some early Christmas cheer to motorists, shoppers and businesses in Caerphilly town centre.
“The council has listened to the concerns of the community and have worked closely with the contractor to deliver these positive changes ready for the critical pre-Christmas period.”
To help ease pressure on retailers affected by the roadworks, free parking will be available in the town’s pay and display car parks from December 9 until December 23.
Cllr Morgan added: “Caerphilly is very much open for business and we would encourage everyone to support our local traders.”
In a statement, Caerphilly COunty Borough Council said: “The council and the main contractor, Walters UK Ltd, are continually monitoring the progress of the scheme and post-Christmas the traffic management arrangements will revert back to as they are now (single lanes) for a period of time.”
The impact of the roadworks on motorists and local companies was recently raised in the Welsh Assembly by South Wales East AM Steffan Lewis.
Questioning Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Infrastructure Ken Skates AM last week, Plaid Cymru’s Mr Lewis said: “The Cabinet Secretary will be aware, I’m sure, of the fiasco of the Pwllypant roundabout in Caerphilly, and I am aware this isn’t a Welsh Government road, but it is an important regional route, and it’s having an enormous impact on local businesses and on people’s daily lives.
“Can I ask if he, or his department, has engaged with the local authority in terms of looking at the nature of the contract between the local authority and the contractors? Is he looking at other options for the roadwork improvements around PwllyPant, perhaps the introduction of continental shifts, for example? Because local people cannot afford 12 months of disruption of this nature. There has to be a better way of improving the roads around Pwllypant.”
Mr Skates responded: “I think it’s important that, when roadworks take place, they are concluded as swiftly as possible with as little disruption as possible to those who use the roads.
“So, I’ll ask my officials to engage directly with the local authority to find ways of minimising disruption and to bring the works to an end as soon as possible.”
Give the affected residents and businesses a bucketload of compensation and introduce nightworking. It’ll be finished by May 2018 and probably slip in under the £10m?
I can never understand why a contractor was given this job
in the first place without confirming they would work on a 24 hours shift
pattern. Working on a vital arterial road on day work is ridiculous. Time is
spent setting up in the morning, followed by closing down at the end of the
day. This reduces the time actually spent on the work to around half a shift
per day.
In a lifetime in industry we were always looking at ways to eliminate start up and shut downs as we acutely aware that productivity soared the longer the uninterrupted production run was,