Lockdown delays opening of Wigan link road

The project to create a new route between Wigan town centre and Goose Green had been on schedule until the lockdown.

But council chiefs today said that completion of the carriageway would have to be delayed “probably until the early summer.”

So not too long then and there is nothing that the contractors Jones Bros can do about it.

Its workforce has continued with works on the road throughout the pandemic, while staff observe strict social distancing rules, but the problem has been the availability of materials from supplies, some of whom have had to shutdown or reduce output during the lockdown and while staff are furloughed.

There is also some legal work to be completed before the road can open to the public.

One of the biggest engineering schemes to take place in the borough in recent years, the A49 link road starts at Westwood Way - which connects with Poolstock and Chapel Lane, passes alongside Scotman’s Flash, over Poolstock Lane and heads up through Worsley Mesnes to emerge at the roundabout on Warrington Road.

Work began in the autumn of 2018 with forecasts that it would be up and running by the spring of 2020. And while the bulk of it has been completed, there is obviously still more to come.

The operation included the building of three new bridges, one of which crosses Poolstock and another over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The Westwood Way bridge has also been doubled in width to cope with the extra traffic and the junction with Poolstock and Chapel Lane modified accordingly.

In order to shield fauna at the wildlife-rich flashes as best as possible from the noise of passing vehicles, acoustic fences have been erected between the carriageway and the lakes.

The aim of the link road is to ease congestion along existing Wigan routes, particularly Poolstock. Supporters say that this will reduce pollution due to fewer jams involving idling engines and make the area more attractive for redevelopment.

It forms part of a bigger planned relief - known decades ago as Route 225 - which, if completed, would connect the M6 at its Orrell junction with the M58 to the M61 at Westhoughton.

Some sections remain untouched, some were done long ago as part of other developments in the hope that the route would be put together piecemeal. The likeliest next section is the one leading up from Goose Green roundabout across former Pemberton colliery land, up the back of Leopold Street to connect with the M6/M58 roundabout.

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