Long delays as priority is to prevent traffic building up on motorway slip roads

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Motorists have been facing long delays heading out of Wilmslow towards the M56 for weeks whilst work is being carried out at the World Logistics Hub.

Many of whom have complained that the setting of the temporary traffic lights is wrong as there are no queues heading in the other direction.

Paul Wadsworth told wilmslow.co.uk "In the morning the traffic is backed up to Texaco all the way to Airport City turning. These lights are manned but it seems they aren't running long enough to allow traffic to flow as once through the lights there is no jams to the M56."

Mr Wadsworth contacted UDP (Utilities Design & Planning Ltd).

Dave Hilton, Director at UDP, said "Sorry about your delays – unfortunately the timings are legally pre-set into temporary light systems – we have it set on the legal minimum time for the turn into Amazon – however, our priority is to prevent any traffic building up off the motorway slip roads heading towards Wilmslow, this necessitates us preventing the right turn into Amazon blocking the Wilmslow bound lane (hence the operative on site), and this does unfortunately cause a build up heading towards the motorway."

Mr Hilton added "Hopefully the works should be finished by the end of the year and the new junction lay-out will be set to prevent the delays."

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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Barry Stafford
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 3:32 pm
Never seems to be much activity when I pass Loads of cones.earth cut away for weeks. No one doing much. Why do these govt contracts.take so long and never work weekends .Baz
Colin Jones
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 4:20 pm
I wonder if CEC Highways and Cheshire Police were consulted on this decision, or was it just Manchester City Council and GMP? It would be nice to think there was some cross-border discussion, as it's east Cheshire commuters who are the ones affected.
Suzanne Metcalfe
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 7:40 pm
The roads should have been finished before airport city was built. There wouldn't have then been an issue.
Malcolm Elliott
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 8:16 pm
Mr Hilton added "Hopefully the works should be finished by the end of the year and the new junction lay-out will be set to prevent the delays."

Ha Ha Ha ...look on the bright side folks....only another three months to go.
Even Alan Ayckbourn couldn't write this stuff.

Why not do away with the right turn into Airport City altogether and let all the traffic go through the tunnels......around the roundabout ....then back up through the tunnels to make a left turn into Airport City ?
I'm sure there is an excellent reason why you have decided not to do this and have all the traffic queuing back to Wilmslow.
Fraser Dainton
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 8:36 pm
I'm getting sick of hearing such mealy-mouthed and pathetic excuses. Wilmslow is being choked to death by traffic, and living here is becoming a misery. At present we have the logistics hub, the airport tunnels, the airport relief road, the A34 at Stanley Green, and now Styal Road all covered in roadworks. How on earth is it possible that all the relevant agencies involved think it's perfectly acceptable to have all these major projects going on, all at the same time?!?! This shows either a lack of joined up planning, gross incompetence, or - worst of all - complete indifference to the thousands who are suffering, day after day.
Pete Taylor
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 9:23 pm
@ Malcom, as suggested here months ago by Mr Brough; a transport professional. If you guys can see this why can UDP, CEC and Manchester Council not?
Martin Duguid
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 9:37 pm
The smug complacency of Mr Hilton the UDP director is staggering. Phrases like ''hopefully the work will be finished BY THE END OF THE YEAR" are not helpful. Be specific and do SOMETHING to appease the thousands of people you are holding up daily. Perhaps Mr Hilton should come and live in Wilmslow 'till the end of the year'!
Stewart Dyer
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 9:44 pm
I noticed that the signs at the airport tunnels have been altered to read that the work will now take 30 weeks, rather than the original 20. An extra 10 weeks of that particular frustration - about 7 months to change the light bulbs!!!
Peter Evans
Wednesday 27th September 2017 at 9:51 pm
Mr Hilton is also incorrect. Tonight I queued all the way along the M56 slip road (coming off M56 from Chester direction) and then all the way through the roadworks. Took about 15 mi s or more. But, key point - I was queuing on the slip road. The planning is not as good as is being claimed (today's statement of the unbelievably obvious).
Simon Worthington
Thursday 28th September 2017 at 10:07 am
All the roadworks, improvements etc. should have been delayed until the SEMMMS by pass is finished.
The "World Logistics Hub" (post centre) is a fine exhibit of planning at its worst and should be a textbook example of how not to plan access to a site. The access should be via the westbound slip road of the M56 with an entry from the site for westbound traffic. Eastbound traffic exiting as now onto a slip road. This was far too simple and a fine example of how GMC operates. The site was green belt now gone forever due entirely to the greed of GMC and Manchester Airport (almost bottom in recent surveys of international and UK airports - it is a disgusting gateway to the country).
John Clegg
Thursday 28th September 2017 at 11:11 am
There's a large conurbation near to North Cheshire which treats car drivers with disdain. Their preferred option is to terrorize car-drivers out of their cars with delays caused by road-works, incorrect phasing of traffic signals, etc. These tactics don't look dis-similar.

I recognize the need to "encourage" people to depend less on car use but while 'bus services are cut - or terminated - and trains are inadequate, especially if everyone had to rely on rail transport, there is no alternative.

I also remember an excuser from Man Airport in the mid-'90s telling us that improvements - especially the construction of the 2nd runway and its tunnel - would benefit Wilmslow and the surrounding areas.
Really? Extra traffic passing through to the airport? Or is it all those thousands who fly into little old Ringway to sample the delights on offer at the Revolution in Wilmslow or to go shopping at all the charity shops occupying the Knightsbridge of the North?
Alan Brough
Thursday 28th September 2017 at 11:51 am
" Stewart Dyer. In fairness, the closure of one tunnel bore actually helps the free flow of traffic as it stops the overtaking of standing traffic at peak times - the problem being two lanes into one at the same point that traffic slows to let Ashley Lane traffic 'merge' at a give way junction.

The current problem is wholly and solely attributable to the lack of infrastructure planning around the commencement of Amazon and DHL operations at Airport City.

What Mr Hilton doesn't tell us is how will the new junction be structured and, given the imperative to keep traffic moving off the motorway slip roads and an increasing volume of vehicle movements in / out of Airport City, what will happen to improve the outlook for long-suffering motorists travelling through Wilmslow to the M56?
Michelle Gray
Thursday 28th September 2017 at 3:49 pm
Suzanne Metcalfe has echoed the sentiments I have been uttering every time the flow of traffic is interrupted by new developments, be they residential or industrial
How on earth do the developers get away with failing to provide the infrastructure before they start to build?
It should be a prerequisite which should be adhered to before the construction work begins
Cheshire East is letting us down badly if it fails to enforce this
Nick Jones
Thursday 28th September 2017 at 5:43 pm
28/9 4.00pm; 8 mile trip Wilmslow to Halebarns ... 35 minutes out, 40 minutes back. crazy !.
Paul Hampton
Friday 29th September 2017 at 6:49 am
A warning on a related note. Throughout yesterday the tipper trucks working on the SEMMMs project in Styal / Manchester Airport, were ignoring the signposted diversions through Heald Green and instead using the narrow Stanneylands route for transporting rubble.

This inevitably caused long tailbacks and flaring of tempers when they because stuck at the hotel. And they’re not the only ones at it this week - coaches, HGVs etc as well. Makes you wonder what it could be like once they start breaking ground for the new housing development.
Vince Chadwick
Friday 29th September 2017 at 7:15 pm
Well of course there used to be very handy alternative route to Styal from Wilmslow which I used use a lot, even back when traffic was a lot less congested than it is now. It ran from the Valley Lodge to Styal Road (between Styal and Heald Green) along the south side of the Airport.

What happened to it? The Airport managed to get it extinguished when they expanded their territory to build the second runway.....
Estelle Lewis
Monday 2nd October 2017 at 10:33 am
Road works everywhere, it's a nightmare. As Fraser Dainton pointed out above - a dreadful lack of coordination and communication. Travelling anywhere from Wilmslow one has to add on another hour for hold-ups. As a retired person I don't travel during 'rush hour' (a misnomer if ever there was one) but we seem to have a permanent traffic jam especially on the A34 bypass. Thank goodness for late night shopping at Tesco! The roads are a lot quieter at 11pm!
Gary Chaplin
Tuesday 3rd October 2017 at 4:39 pm
Beyond a joke. With the Tunnels work and these road works (plus the A34 road works and now Styal Road closed), there is no way out of Wilmslow. The lost productivity is massive...and yet there seems to be no productivity at any of these roadworks.

30 weeks to pain a tunnel and change some light fittings? A year to build a bit of road past a well planned industrial park? Comical, although having never seen anyone actually working at these locations it's hardly surprising.

Our council is as incompetent as it is corrupt and treats it's residents with distain.

Dave Hilton, you don't deserve to keep your job.