Hub junction to get £5m upgrade in 2019
Work will take over a year and create new lanes
CASH has been secured to progress improvements at a much-maligned junction in Hinckley - but works won’t happen for 19 months and they will take more than a year to complete.
Some £3.5 million from the Government will go towards a long-awaited £5 million scheme to tackle congestion on Rugby Road, outside the borough council offices and into Burbage.
Plans include shaving land off the Lidl supermarket car park to allow for a new left-hand slip lane from Hawley Road as well widening further along at the Brookside junction to provide a two-lane exit southbound towards the M69, with space to merge.
The project had been part of a wider £15.5 million Hinckley Zone 4 initiative which failed to get Government funding in the spring.
Bosses at highways authority, Leicestershire County Council, decided recently to press ahead with a smaller scale scheme but hoped to resurrect the Rugby Road strategy once more money was found.
Now they have been awarded £3.5 million from the Government’s National Productivity Investment Fund.
However, works are not scheduled until May 2019 with completion in summer 2020.
County ward councillor Stuart Bray said: “I welcome this as it’s long overdue. It is something we have been campaigning for for some time.
“I have concerns that the work will only be a partial solution to the traffic problems in this part of town rather than the fundamental look at the congestion throughout the area, which is what is really needed.
“The focus continues to be on supporting further expansion rather than dealing with the existing problems which people who use the roads concerned will know about all to well.”
As well as the road widening at each junction there are proposals to install a controlled pedestrian crossing and cycle crossing at the Rugby Road/ Brookside turn. The crossroads outside the Hinckley Hub will remain controlled by traffic lights.
Councillor Blake Pain, Leicestershire County Council’s cabinet member for highways said: “I’m delighted that the Government has backed our bid to improve the infrastructure in Hinckley.
“The funds will help us to ease congestion, which affects businesses and constrains growth, as well as help boost the economy by around £83 million per year.
A bid for a new roundabout on the A47 at Desford was unsuccessful in gaining funds but the county will continue to promote it as a desired scheme.