Demolishing flyover would bring ‘two years of chaos’
THE removal of a Birmingham flyover will mean ‘two years of chaos’ for residents, it has been claimed.
But Birmingham City Council has asked Perry Barr residents to be patient if £27 million of road improvements are rubber stamped.
The proposals – set to go before cabinet on Tuesday – include the removal of the A34 flyover, and the replacement of the A34/A4040 roundabout with traffic lights. The plans also include a range of new cycling routes, improved footpaths, removal of subways and landscape improvements.
More than 4,000 residents have already opposed the idea via petitions. The council says the scheme was chosen in favour of two others – one of which would have retained the flyover – because it will see the least amount of disruption in the years leading up to the Commonwealth Games.
But Councillor Jon Hunt (Lib-Dem, Perry Barr) said that he believed the works would lead to ‘huge traffic jams and congestion’.
“This proposal means two
years
of chaos in north-west Birmingham while the flyover removal takes place,” he said. “This will be followed by the installation of two traffic light junctions – one at One Stop and one at Birchfield – and I very much doubt will be up to the job.
“All the evidence is that trying to manage the merger of major routes by means of traffic lights causes huge traffic jams and congestion.
“This is utter madness and all the evidence we have is that it is driven by value judgements made by a small number of individuals, not representing the local community, that they do not like the look of the flyover, that it is some kind of eyesore.”
He added: “Frankly this obsession with removing the flyover is undermining the image of the Commonwealth Games. It is unnecessary and unnecessarily expensive.”
The idea is part of the £523 million regeneration of Perry Barr which includes the construction of more than 1,400 homes for the Athletes Village, which will be turned into residential housing after the Games.