Birmingham
Page 35
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE Midland motorway, which will link the M1 with the Birmingham. Preston motorway, may go through the centre of Birmingham as a sky-highway.
Consulting engineers responsible for the survey work on the new link road this week confirmed that surveyors had already had discussions with local authorities, farmers and landowners involved in the scheme.
The road would pass through Castle Bromwich, Erdington, Witton, Perry Barr and Great Barr, and would probably be built on stilts for the section over the Birmingham, Tame and Rea Drainage Board's Saltley sewage works.
On Monday, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce criticized the progress on motorway construction and traffic routes through cities, and called for a drastic reappraisal of the road programme.
A report by the road traffic section of the chamber stated that it was doubtful whether there was a sufficiently imaginative approach to the long-term aspects.
"A high level of expenditure will be necessary for several years if the deficiences of the past are to be remedied," it added.
£5,500 DAMAGES AWARDED AGAINST B.T.C. nAMAGES of £5,500 were awarded
against the British Transport Commission at Nottinghamshire Assizes last week when Mr. Justice Glynn-Jones decided that they were responsible for the death of one of their drivers. He upheld a claim by the man's widow, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth ThOmpson, Staveley, Derbys, who contended that brake failure on the 5-tonner he was driving was because of negligence on the part of the Commission.
Mr. H. G. Talbot, for Mrs. Thompson, described how the lorry, carrying a 9ton load, was being driven near Ashbourne, Derbys, when it ran away down a hill and struck a tree. The cause was failure in the hydraulic braking system through negligence in assembly by the vehicle owners, he declared.
In reply. Mr. B. Caulfield, for the B.T.C., contended that the accident was .the result of Mr. Thompson's driving. He braked too late to negotiate a bend.
BY-PASS OPENED
THE Ingatestone by-pass, on the Al2 London-Yarmouth road, was opened by the Minister of Transport on Monday. The two-mile by-pass leaves the existing A 12 just north of Heybridge and rejoins it half a mile beyond Ingatestone. The new road has dual 24-ft. carriageways, hard shoulders and lay-bys.
B.R.S. DELAY SWITCH
APROPOSAL to transfer work from the depot of British Road Services at Kay Street, Bolton, to Kearsley has been postponed. Drivers and maintenance staff at Kay Street staged a strike on August Bank Holiday as a protest against the scheme.