You might think traffic in Grantham has been horrendous these last few weeks - well, it’s about to get a lot worse.
With the south of the town already grid-locked due to roadworks affecting Springfield Road, Bridge End Road and London Road, Lincolnshire County Council Highways announced yesterday it will close the Belton Lane bridge linking Belton Lane and Manthorpe Road on Monday.
The county council has been criticised this week for carrying out so much work all at once but defended the decision to start the Belton Lane work now in order to get everything done over the six week school summer holidays and “minimise the disruption”.
Business owner Libby Simpson is furious at the slow rate of work south of the town centre and the decision to carry out all the work at once.
Libby, who owns Pressgang in London Road, said: “My business is going down the pan and there’s nobody working there.
“Why are they doing this at the same time as Belton Lane? What are they doing to us? I’ve taken nothing these past two weeks because nobody wants to come into Grantham.”
The eye-watering map (above) shows all of the current and future planned roadworks for Grantham this summer.
Taken from Lincolnshire County Council’s own website, the map shows all of the roadworks and utility works planned until the end of September.
The map reveals every main route into and out of the town will be subject to some kind of work this summer.
Highways have also issued a warning this week about drivers putting the lives of workmen at risk by ignoring one-way signs in Springfield Road. A spokesman for Lincolnshire County Council’s Highways Department said: “We are having problems on site with people ignoring the one-way eastbound closure on Springfield Road. We are experiencing a number of vehicles every day coming down Springfield Road, through the closure and no entry signs, through the red lights at the railway bridge and through our works.
“This is causing great risk to our workforce. We have asked the police to visit the site to enforce this and all the other traffic management arrangements. We have also been monitoring CCTV cameras and will be passing the registration numbers of vehicles undertaking any unlawful manoeuvres to the police.”
Highways had advertised roadworks which would close Grantham High Street in August but said this week that was an error.