Monday, March 26, 2012

Schedule of Tesco Works

Although they've been in the paper (this time correctly) it's a bit messy even on the official notifications so I'll add the current schedule of the Tesco works here along with a description.

20th-23rd March. Daytime only. No right turn from Mitton Street to Vale Road to add in Puffin pedestrian crossing (work now completed)

26th-29th March. Daytime only. No left turn from Mitton Street to Lion Hill to add in Puffin pedestrian crossing works.

30th March-4th April Daytime only. No left turn from Mitton Street to Vale Road to add in Puffin pedestrian crossing. For those going "huh?" the Black Star is in Mitton Street.

10th-14th April Daytime only. No right turn from Mitton Street to Lion Hill to add in Puffin pedestrian crossing. For those going "huh?" see above.

16th-18th April Nightime only (21:00-06:00).Worcester Road to Lion Hill closed i.e. what most consider to be the entirety of Mitton Street is closed. Presumably to install traffic lights. To show how well the planners know this town they described it as "Lion Hill to Worcester Road"... it's a one-way system; the other way.


18th-20th April Nightime only. High Steet to Lion Hill closed i.e the other part of Mitton Street next to the Black Star is closed. Presumably to connect pedestrian crossings.


20th-21th April Nightime only.Worcester Road to Lion Hill closed again. Final checks?

After all that hopefully no more Tesco work; which is ironic as the rumours are getting more solid that Tesco aren't even going to build there now due to budgetary constraints.

[Update - How odd the signs that have gone up say only the 16th 17th and 20th as well as some dates in May]

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"After all that hopefully no more Tesco work; which is ironic as the rumours are getting more solid that Tesco aren't even going to build there now due to budgetary constraints."

The last time I walked along Severn Road I noticed that the two big signs saying "Tesco coming soon" had been removed. There was still one smaller sign attached to the blue boarding next to the old Worth's offices.

Today I noticed that that sign too has now been removed. It was not in the way of any work, it was simply fixed on the blue boarding. The only reason I can think of to remove a sign saying "Tesco coming soon" is that Tesco isn't coming soon.

There is now no Tesco branding anywhere on the site that I can find. Not an opportunity a business such as Tesco would be expected to miss.

Not so much a rumour, more a cast-iron certainty to my mind - there won't be a Tesco store here any time soon. Which leaves a prime new development site ready for [fill in the blanks].

FlipC said...

Take one healthy dose of rumours and add in a good dollop of "due to be finished this year but declined to comment on reports it would not be ready until 2013" and yeah not going to see anything soon.

Anonymous said...

Probably no store, but Tesco have given us a handy by-pass for the Worcester Road island. Most traffic from Worcester Road into town will now surely use Discovery Road/Severn Road. It would be a shame to have a nice new bridge and not use it. Every little helps.

FlipC said...

Yeah I mentioned it was going to become a rat run particularly now I've gone down on site and discovered that they are indeed widening the pavement and thus narrowing Mitton Street down.

Anonymous said...

It's not a "rat run". It's a proper new road to relieve congestion on the Worcester Road island.

FlipC said...

Sarcasm detection routine offline...

Just in case - the bridge has two purposes. The first is for Tesco deliveries; the second is for access to and from the to-be-built housing estate next door. Both to avoid Mitton Street; not the Worcester Road island.

I'm not trying to avoid Mitton Street; I'm trying to avoid the Worcester Road island therefore if I use it it is not for the purpose for which it was built hence rat-run :-)

Anonymous said...

I've got the plans in front of me and it sure looks like a proper road to me. So does the work on the ground. Don't forget, Discovery Road is part of the Stourport By-Pass, or will be one fine day - traffic from Worcester will be turning onto it in any event. The new junction at Discovery Road/Severn Road is showing as a full triangle, with central refuge for traffic turning right into Severn Road.

If signs appear directing traffic that way to the Town Centre, is it still a "rat-run"?

And why so keen to avoid 2-lane Mitton Street? The real congestion is between Gilgal and the Worcester Road island, with only 1 lane each way.

FlipC said...

But it has to be remembered that AFAIK there was never any plans to extend the bypass across the Stour just the Severn.

If signs do appear to direct traffic to the town via that route then sure I'll 'declassify' it as a rat-run :-). However it still stands that it was built to shift traffic from Mitton Street and not the island and to me the definition of a rat-run is taking 'side-streets' to avoid a particular location which they weren't designed to avoid.

Why the Mitton Street avoidance - you mean other than all the houses abutting it and the fact that the road narrows and curves?

Besides if they'd built it to avoid the island that would mean having to admit there's a congestion problem there and at the Mitton Street side and then they'd have to do something about it.... and no getting Tesco to build a bridge across the Stour is not doing something about it :-)

On the same note check the entrance to Severn Road. If this bridge was being built to shift traffic from Worcester Road to Mitton Street would you stick two bus stops right next to the split?

I'm betting the planners think that all the traffic using it will drive straight to Tesco and then back out the same way and they'll be (or act) all surprised that traffic is using it to avoid the island.

Anonymous said...

The plan clearly shows Severn Road as a through route with an off-shoot feeder onto the Tesco site. If that was the intended destination of all traffic the new feeder junction would have been laid out differently.

The two bus-stops for Tesco have their own lay-bys, one on the Tesco feeder and one on the west side of Severn Road, so I don't understand your point there. There would have been an outcry if no public transport access was provided to the new store.

FlipC said...

It's a route that connects to Severn Road due to its position; they're not going to change Severn Road so sure it's going to look like a through route.

We must also be looking at different plans - the ones I'm looking at show the two bus stops in the road; and indeed if you check my photos I'm guessing this is the reason for the high kerbing here.

Anonymous said...

They had turned the traffic lights on last night - in rush hour of course, can someone tell me why? i was assuming that these would be operational when Tesco is built? Well if that was a trial its had the desired effect the traffic backed up to Sandy Lane and I assume all the roads leading to the lights.

FlipC said...

Made the Shuttle at least the 1pm test did.

Obviously not helped having essentially an entire lane still closed despite them only having permission to do so up until the 30th April 2012.