Slip road closed due to stagnant water
ARUNCORN slip road has closed again for essential drainage works – 18 months after residents first raised concerns that a major highway had caused a large pool of stagnant water to form.
The route, which links the Halton Brow and Boston Avenue junction to the southbound Central Expressway, shut on September 14 and is due to reopen around October 5.
Traffic is being directed around Bridgewater Junction and Central Expressway.
A Mersey Gateway bridge project spokeswoman said the work is taking place to complete repairs to a culvert at Halton Brook.
These include installing drainage, rebuilding a concrete safety barrier, painting road markings, reinstalling a traffic detection system for the traffic lights at Halton Lea and removing temporary traffic management in the area.
In March last year, residents on The Calvers said they believed road widening and junction works on the Central Expressway completed as part of the Mersey Gateway bridge project had led to a stinking stagnant pool of water forming and becoming a magnet for fly-tipping and rats and a risk to children.
It was soon fenced off, and in April this year, the Mersey Gateway project dug up the road at that spot to “repair damage to an existing pipe” close to the pool and under the Central Expressway.
A large pool of water and open pipe could be seen in an open excavation pit on the slip road about 50 metres from the large mystery Calvers pool.
Initially last year, Halton Borough Council claimed the pool was Plus Dane housing association’s responsibility because it was their land, and the Merseylink bridge consortium claimed it was “not related to Mersey Gateway works”.