Work is already underway on the verges at trees Corner, Walsall Wood. Image from my 365days journal.

A number of people have asked about the work currently taking place at the Streets Corner Junction in Walsall Wood, that has seen the wall in front to the shops demolished and excavations taking place on the land there.

This work is the first stage of junction improvement works that will see the entire junction remodelled and resignalled as part of the A461 improvement works in the area that has seen huge improvements to flows at the Shire Oak crossroads and will also see work to improve the Mellish Road Island in Walsall.

Streets Corner will be realigned on the Brownhills-Salters Road axis, to reduce the sharp corner on the northbound side of the junction. and extra slip road will be created between Salters Road and the Lichfield road for vehicles turning left from Aldridge. New crossings and refuges will be created, and signals renewed with intelligent control and sequencing.

The works are scheduled for completion in Summer 2018.

I wholly support this – the junction has been operating at capacity for some time now and really needs optimising for all users – drivers and pedestrians alike.

You can see a plan of the work below, or click in the link below it for a PDF version. You can find out more about the plans at Walsall Council’s webpage here.

What do you think? Please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.

The plan for improvements to Streets Corner, click for a larger version, or see the PDF link in the text. Image from Walsall Council.

A461 Lichfield Road – Junction Improvements Scheme

Main Scheme Information

The A461 Lichfield Road is an arterial route, which runs in a north-easterly direction from Walsall town centre to the Borough boundary. It carries large volumes of traffic throughout the day which results in heavy congestion at peak times. The A461 junction improvement scheme seeks to address the issue of growing congestion and the lack of traffic capacity along this strategic route.

The scheme will target two locations – A461 Lichfield Road / B4152 Salter’s Road junction and A461 Lichfield Road / A452 Chester Road (Shire Oak) junction. Both will be widened to increase capacity, benefit from improved pedestrian facilities, and new traffic signals and communications technology installed to improve operation.

The junctions will be linked by an intelligent traffic signal system and controlled and monitored by the Urban Traffic Controller facility at the Black Country Urban Traffic Control Centre. The new traffic signal junction installed as part of the Oak Park leisure centre development will also be linked via the same intelligent system.

Both Streets Corner and Shire Oak are busy junctions with congestion issues, as this archive picture shows.

Scheme Progress and Planned Work: Update 13 April 2018

Shire Oak junction is now largely completed. The timings of these new signals will be monitored and optimized by the control centre of the coming weeks.

The land required to widen the junction of A461 Lichfield Road / B4152 Salter’s Road is now acquired. The first stage of the works will be to construct a new retaining wall on the grassed area to the front of the ‘Family Shopper’ and ‘The Original Factory Shop’. Contractors will then go on to divert the existing underground utility services. Some preliminary works will start in February 2018. This junction will be complete at the end of summer 2018.

Works will begin outside the Co-op on Monday 16 April 2018. A footway closure is required for this work. Details of this and designated pedestrian routes can be found in the plan below (section of closed footway shown in blue hatching).

View plan of closed footway outside the Co-op (pdf)

Any planned disruption to utility services will be communicated in advance by the utility companies directly to their customers.

View plan of improvements at A461 Lichfield Road/Salter’s Road junction (pdf)
View plan of improvements at A461 Lichfield Road/A452 Chester Road (pdf)

For any further information please contact:

Donna Cattell
Senior Transport Planner
Email: A461@walsall.gov.uk
Phone: 01922 654659