Bypass scheme stopped, again.

The Holmes road bypass scheme was looking all set to go but has once again been shelved indefinitely until developers step in with loads of money; it looks like SB will never be getting that bypass. Well it wasn’t exactly a major bypass just a small section of new road that could have saved a lot of traffic from going through Wharf St. from Wakefield road and rejoining the A58 at station road.
I should really oppose this new stretch of road as I have an allotment there and don’t know how the proposed road would affect it. But for the greater good I think it should go ahead if done sensitively (how likely is that??) and sensibly, there are many ways that SB could benefit. It won’t however, if ever happen for a long time.

It is noted that this would have caused its own problems as a new section of road would have had to be built from the end of Holmes road up to Wakefield road, so land would have to be acquired. Also it would have been difficult to decide what to do at the station road end of the bypass where the railway bridge is one way- but there are solutions to this, one of which is to open up another of the railways arches to create another passage, each of these could take one-way traffic. It could have once been a problem that the market was located on Station Road but now that has gone there is not much along station road that would be badly affected by the new road, it is also a very wide section of road. My only concern here would be for the well being of the geese that hang out by the joining of the two rivers at the taxi rank, they often cross the road here.

As with any huge schemes like these they are dependant on many factors one huge one in this case is the ‘Copley Transformational Project’ at the former Standard Wire site opposite the HBOS data centre near Copley. If this doesn’t happen then the bypass can’t happen, it is imperative that the council tip and other industries be relocated, not just for the bypass but in the short term to save the ancient bridge that is constantly being battered by lorries and trucks to large for it to handle. The lovely old bridge between Holmes road and Canal road is one-way and not only causes huge tailbacks during rush hour as it’s one way but is repeatedly rammed by trucks and loosing huge amounts of very large stones to the river.
This one way system between Holmes and Canal road just will not do in the long run so in a way I hope that the Holmes Road scheme will go ahead, with least amount of damage to the countryside or the allotments. SB could greatly benefit from having much of the industries relocated to a site with better access as part of this scheme; this I think is the bigger issue. If they moved the industries to the new site they may not even need to build new roads as the heavier traffic wouldn’t need to use this route anymore.