Work to Spalding roundabout likely to take more than a year due to delays

Improvement works to a Spalding roundabout are going to take more than a year to complete after highways chiefs have warned of delays.

Coun Richard Davies, Lincolnshire County Council’s executive member for highways, has warned motorists that Springfields roundabout works are unlikely to be completed until late autumn.

Work to widen the roundabout – where the A16 meets the A151 just outside of Spalding – began in September last year and was due to take a year to complete but has been hit by delays due to the weather.

The scheme has been funded by Government levelling up cash as part of three projects costing £20 million.

Coun Davies said: “We originally hoped to have the works complete this September but, unfortunately, we won’t meet that timeframe. The major weather events we’ve experienced over recent months – including Storms Babet, Henk and Isha – have set us back slightly.

“As a result, it’s now looking like we’ll be finishing on-site in late autumn rather than early autumn.

“In the meantime, our focus is now on the widening the northwest and southeast corners of the roundabout. Following that, we’ll be on laying the final road surfacing, which will involve some overnight closures. However, we’re still finalising the details of these but will share details as soon as they're confirmed.

“I want to thank everyone for the continued patience as we continue these important ‘levelling up’ improvements to A16’s agrifood corridor between Boston and Spalding.”

While the project is being delayed, it has now passed the half-way stage.

So far, a quarter-mile of new underground street lighting ducts installed and more than 1,500 tonnes of road building material used.

A total of 22 new drainage gullies have been installed and new underground BT Openreach chambers have been built.

Coun Davies said: “Since starting last September, the team has spent over 28,000 hours working on the project. And, so far, we’ve widened the road to increase the number of approach lanes at the northeast and southwest sections of the roundabout. This is on top of laying nearly 700 metres of new kerbing and diverting over a half-mile of 33kv cables.”

The project is being funded by a portion of the £20m in ‘Levelling Up’ funding awarded to the county council in October 2021. The remaining funding is being used across four other projects, including improvements to Spalding’s A16/B1180 Greencell Roundabout, the A16 Marsh Lane Roundabout, and footway/cycleway improvements in Boston and Spalding.

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