‘THEY’VE SPENT £17M AND MADE A500 JUNCTION WORSE THAN EVER’
Slip-road blocked for months by roadworks
FRUSTRATED motorists have spoken out after being stuck in queues getting onto the A500.
Highways England splashed out £17.5 million to widen the A500 between Wolstanton and Porthill.
The new-look section of the D-road – which now has six lanes – opened last summer. But the direct left turn onto the A500 slip-road from Grange Lane, in Wolstanton, is blocked off with cones and has been out of bounds for months.
It means motorists have to join a roundabout queue – alongside vehicles travelling southbound onto the A500 and shoppers turning right to Wolstanton Retail Park – before they can turn left onto the northbound D-road.
Motorist Martin Davies, aged 63, of Basford, said: “The left lane onto the A500 is currently blocked off so it can’t be used. It’s ridiculous.
“They have spent all this money designing the junction and it’s worse now than it was before.
“You get a build up of traffic. When you are going down Grange Lane, and want to go left to Porthill, you’re stuck in the queue of people also wanting to go to Asda. There used to be a lane where you could just go left and join the A500 – but now you can’t. It’s causing more congestion.
“I’ve seen the queue stretch as far back as the traffic lights at the top of Grange Lane. There’s a school at the top and the traffic potentially blocks off the junction completely.
“The way the left-hand lane is designed at present it will never be used because it is too dangerous.
“Somebody, somewhere, needs to accept responsibility for this. It is a complete mess. It needs redesigning so you can use the left-hand lane from Grange Lane.”
Roadworks are in place in the area as part of the project to create the Etruria Valley link road (EVLR).
Highways England senior project manager Michael Hillier said: “The left-turn lane from Grange Lane onto the A500 northbound slip-road is closed as part of changes to the sliproad to accommodate the new lane between Wolstanton and Porthill.
“The EVLR project will carry out further work in this area to provide two lanes of traffic from Grange Lane onto the roundabout.”