Delayed road opening leaves locals angered
Residents are not happy about delays and detours
Delays to the reopening of an East Kilbride road have been slammed by fed-up residents facing detours of at least five miles.
Roadworks were being undertaken on Jackton Road by developer Cala Homes in an effort to resolve problems discovered during ongoing building works in the area.
Cala are just one on those involved in the development of the massive East Kilbride Community Growth Area (EKCGA), which will eventually see thousands of new homes, a new primary school and retail facilities in the Jackton area.
Residents in the area have already faced the lengthy closure of Newlands Road for the upgrading, reconstruction and installation of public utility apparatus.
The latest works at Jackton Road were due to be completed by February 4 but the road didn’t reopen, behind schedule, until Friday.
Cala cited unforeseen challenges with the upgrade works and ensuring the safety of the workforce for the delay.
But the delay has angered locals who say the ongoing construction and infrastructure upgrade works linked to the growth area are causing them no end of problems.
One fumed: “This is unacceptable. I stay at the bottom of Jackton Road and now have to do a four-mile detour to get back to Eaglesham Road.
“I have had numerous encounters of road accidents, plus numerous nondelivery of parcels. I am actually so annoyed with this, I’m having to drive four plus miles to get back to a seminormal route ... absolute disgrace ... fed up with it to be honest.”
While another bemoaned the loss of green space, saying: “I could actually cry when I look at what they’ve done. There is no greenspace, every nook and cranny has been absorbed by developers, and we have to just accept it.”
And one man added: “It’s a disgrace. I live in Jackton and regularly use Finlay’s garage, which last week took me a 5.5 mile detour to get there for a service.
“And to walk home afterwards, I had to walk through someone’s garden (on the advice of a mechanic at the garage), climb their fence and walk down a narrow ‘no man’s land’ strip of muddy land behind one of the new Stewart Milne houses to even get back on the beaten track home. Total joke and no provisions made at all to make things easy to still use that area.”
A spokesperson for Cala Homes (West) said: “We are currently undertaking a programme of improvements to Jackton Road to address some issues uncovered during our building works.
“The additional works have been agreed in consultation with the local council and will bring long-term benefit to the East Kilbride community.
“We apologise for any inconvenience the road closure has caused and would like to assure local residents that we are working to complete works as safely and quickly as possible. We expect to reopen Jackton Road at the end of this week.”
South Lanarkshire Council said the original closure was for the period January 16 to February 4 but it was necessary to extend the closure to February 10.
The local authority said unforeseen circumstances encountered by the contractor were “very difficult ground conditions (rock) and unrecorded utility apparatus, both of which delayed the excavation works”.