Things went wrong, and Northwich was a mess

We wrote earlier this year about the lack of contingency planning surrounding this development, and at the time we said that it wasn’t a matter of if things would go wrong, but when. 

Guess what – they just did.

On 3rd September, around 9:45 at night, a huge sinkhole appeared in the westbound carriageway on the A556 near Lostock Gralam. The hole was so large it forced the immediate closure of the road, but not until after several vehicles had hit it and been damaged in the process.

The road remained closed until almost the end of September, with all westbound traffic being diverted down Manchester Road, Lostock Gralam, turning that road into a virtual car park every day.

What no one seemed to spot was that if the incinerator was running, all lorries bringing waste to the plant would have had to follow this route as well and, in short, they would not have been able to get to the plant without going through the top of Northwich and down Middlewich Road. This is, of course, because of the low bridge on Griffiths Road.

The roads were bad enough over the three weeks the A556 was closed but just imagine another 70 lorries a day added to that traffic queue.

As we said, the whole development is a debacle and as it nears completion, worse is still to come. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Photograph Copyright: Cheshire Police