A woman caught in the middle of roadworks causing traffic chaos in town has come up with her own solution to alleviate the queues.
Emma Poole has worked on Chapel Street for six years as an estate agent where she goes out on property viewings, sometimes as far afield as Preston or Leeds. But her last week of commuting has been ‘a nightmare’, sometimes taking two hours to get home in Blackley.
The project to build more room for buses and pedestrians and install new bike lanes means Chapel Street is closed one-way, and will be for a year.
In its first week, huge jams were seen, which reportedly took an hour to get through. Motorists were not the only ones affected — buses and emergency vehicles have been pictured stuck in the congestion, and cyclists have ridden the wrong way down the road and on pavements as their only alternative is heading down the Trinity Way ring road.
Emma has experienced it first-hand. She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she parks for work at the Premier Inn on nearby Victoria Bridge Street, but it ‘takes 40 minutes to get to the top of Trinity Way’ — a journey of 0.3 miles.
“But I have worked here for six years and I have never known it like this. I nearly cried on my way home the other day,” she added.
Salford council says ‘the current one-way closure remains the safest, most efficient option to complete the works, balancing the needs of residents, businesses, pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport in a constrained city centre environment’.
But Emma has suggested councillors open a bus lane to drivers on nearby on Chapel Street, which could give cars another way to get to the ring road, rather than relying solely on Blackfriars Road.
The 47-year-old said: “Why don’t they open the bus lane for cars so people can get out that way? That would ease the congestion so much. You could get out to Trinity Way that way.”
The bus lane was brought in temporarily in 2020, and made permanent in 2022.
However, Salford council would not be drawn on if it was considering changing the bus lane rules while the roadworks go on.
Councillor Mike McCusker, lead member for planning, transport and sustainable development, said: “Salford City Council have planned the works on Chapel Street carefully, and as part of that process all partners have considered and explored a number of options to maintain traffic flows in the city centre.
“This was in partnership with Manchester City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester.
“The current one-way closure remains the safest, most efficient option to complete the works, balancing the needs of residents, businesses, pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport in a constrained city centre environment.
“The one-way closure extends over approximately 400 meters of the city centre road network. While roadworks can impact disruption to traffic flow, the periods of increased congestion and delays are primarily due to the overall capacity of the network being affected by a combination of incidents, popular events, and high vehicle volumes, rather than solely by the temporary roadworks.”
Transport for Greater Manchester’s highways network director, Peter Boulton, also said more changes to traffic lights are planned.
He said: “We’re aware of the issues being experienced on Chapel Street and appreciate it can be really frustrating to experience journey delays.
“We’re supporting Salford City Council in every way we can to help manage the flow of traffic on the wider road network.
“The team in our 24/7 control centre is regularly sharing intelligence on traffic levels with the council and, where possible, making changes to the sequencing of traffic lights and signals to help keep vehicles moving on surrounding routes.”
