By In an interview today with BBC Radio Humberside presenter David Burns, Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers discussed his recent meetings with Highways England about the A180 resurfacing, which he considers the “noisiest road in the area”.
The resurfacing of the A180 concrete stretch from Barnetby to Grimsby and vice versa, which was supposed to take place in phases between 2019 and 2022, has been delayed by Highways England until at least 2024.
Upon engineers’ inspection of the particular stretch of road, the initial A180 resurfacing had to be abandoned “because they found the work was not just a matter of steaming and then resurfacing it, it needed much more work doing on it,” said Martin Vickers.
“What was originally expected was a relatively minor piece of work has escalated into a much bigger job,” he continued.
Vickers claims the noisy stretch of road affects the residents of Stallingborough the most.
“We don’t figure very high in the estimate of their engineers. That may be the case but we have got to do something to alleviate the noise issues for residents along the route. Stallingborough in particular is perhaps the worst affected. So the battle goes on.
“I have asked them to go away and come back to me and say what can they actually do to help the people in Stallingborough and I shall let you know when I get that report back.”
When asked about whether the region’s new status as a Freeport and the subsequent increased road movements will prompt Highways England to prioritise the resurfacing, Vickers said:
“Well, I did put that to them and that will certainly be one of the arguments I’m using with ministers. But the Freeport will obviously take time to develop and we won’t see the full benefits for a few years. But I agree. That is a very good argument for saying, look, the highway network has got to be improved because the government have granted this benefit to us.”
Despite the area’s new Freeport status, Highways England reps told Mr Vickers that at present funding levels, the work cannot be included in the current five-year program period, which ends in 2024.
“To that, I said this is simply not good enough for my constituents, particularly bearing in mind that they said they were going to deal with it over the period of the next three or four years, two years ago.”
Vickers concluded: “I shall be writing to the Transport Secretary immediately saying that this is not good enough. From a strictly engineering point of view there are more pressing demands in the budget.
“I’m looking it from the point of view of my constituents and the intrusion into their lives that the noise represents. So I shall go on battling for those I represent.”
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