HIGHWAYS bosses who have ordered the closure of Wellington’s M5 junction 26 for three months have been accused of ‘not joining the dots’ as it was revealed major roadworks impacting the alternative A38 route would start on the same day.
The motorway junction will be closed for a resurfacing scheme from June 16 until mid-September, forcing Wellington drivers to use the A38 to reach Taunton.
Many motorists who would usually drive via the M5 and Taunton’s Toneway to reach the eastern side of the county town are likely instead to want to travel via Silk Mills and Staplegrove.
But on the same day, June 16, Wales and West Utilities will start digging up Silk Mills Road to replace ageing metal pipes in a project which could also last until mid-September.
The company is to lay 1.1 miles of long lasting plastic pipes to ‘ensure the continued safe and reliable supply of gas to local homes and businesses’, which will also be capable in future of carrying alternative fuels such as hydrogen and biomethane.
Somerset Council said there would be various types of traffic management in place, and including a one-way system on the A3065 Silk Mills Road between the A38 Wellington New Road roundabout and Mountway Road.
Wellington town and Somerset Cllr Marcus Barr said: “You could not make this debacle up.
“They knew about the Silk Mills gas pipe upgrade for at least six weeks before they told us they were closing junction 26.
“They are just not joining the dots and thinking how one scheme might impact another.
“The misery for Wellington drivers is just going to get even worse than we feared now.
“I can see hundreds of drivers will be crawling along an over-congested A38 to get to Taunton and then finding themselves in traffic jams caused by temporary lights in Silk Mills.
“We were promised by Somerset Council there would be no planned roadworks on the A38 while the junction was closed so traffic could flow.
“But clearly they were not telling us the full truth, unless they really were daft enough not to understand the potential impact of roadworks in Silk Mills.
“It makes you wonder how they would manage if they had to organise a party in a brewery.”
A third and final drop-in session to talk about the junction 26 closure takes place in Wellington Football Clubhouse on Wednesday (May 21) from 3.30 pm to 7 pm.
Also on Wednesday, Wales and West Utilities is holding a drop-in event in Bishops Hull Community Hall for residents to discuss the gas mains upgrade between 2 pm and 7 pm.
A Somerset Council spokesperson told the Wellington Weekly there would not be any impact by the Silk Mills work on A38 traffic heading into Taunton.
They said both sets of work had been ‘carefully co-ordinated and there are no direct clashes in terms of traffic flows through Taunton’.
The spokesperson said: “During both sets of works, vehicles can freely use the A38 corridor into and out of Taunton and still head north along the A3065 Silk Mills from the A38 Wellington New Road roundabout.
“There will also be no traffic travelling south along the A3065 to join the A38 Wellington New Road roundabout, this will indirectly aid traffic flows over the A38 roundabout.
“Each site is independent of each other and while traffic can use the A38 corridor to access Taunton, junction 27 is also available for traffic wishing to use the M5 to travel either south of Wellington or head north along the M5 while junction 26 is closed.”