The hole truth

STEPHEN LEWIS looks at how it all came to this...

IT MAY be small comfort to the legions of motorists choking on traffic fumes as they sit trapped in their cars in the gridlock that is York - but there is a very good reason for the roadworks at the Copmanthorpe traffic lights.

The workers who have somehow managed to bring virtually an entire city to a halt by digging a huge hole in the A64 are helping to save lives.

The Copmanthorpe traffic lights at Top Lane were a lethal trap which, between 1992 and 1996, claimed many victims. There were no less than 36 accidents in those four years alone. Eight of them were serious - and, tragically, three people, one of them a teenage boy, lost their lives.

It was a toll of death and injury which simply could not be allowed to continue.

The traffic lights, points out David Phillips, the Highways Agency's project manager in charge of the works, were one of only two sets in the entire north of England on a dual carriageway. They had to go.

It's a conclusion that Mike Laycock, the Evening Press's veteran chief reporter, agrees with. For years, Mike ran a hard-hitting campaign in the Evening Press calling for the Highways Agency to close the dangerous 'gaps' on the central reservation of the A64 between York and Tadcaster - including those at Colton Lane End, Bilbrough Top and Copmanthorpe. Having spoken to the grief-stricken families of the dead and injured, he knows more than most about the bitter toll exacted by the gaps.

"The Evening Press launched its campaign to close the gaps after a series of serious accidents, some of them fatal," he says. "There were shunt accidents involving vehicles that were trying to stop at the lights, and others involving vehicles crossing through the gap which were hit by cars travelling along the A64. There is no doubt something needed to be done to cut the toll of tragic deaths and injuries on this road."

So when the Highways Agency announcedthe traffic lights were to go, it was cause for celebration. Closing the Copmanthorpe gap was one thing, however, finding an alternative route for traffic from Copmanthorpe to get access onto the eastbound A64 and to York was another.

Some thought simply allowing traffic from Copmanthorpe to use the York outer ring road flyover near Askham Bryan might prove the solution. But even as far back as 1997, Copmanthorpe Parish Council was warning that was not an option. It would simply transfer the dangers from one point on the A64 to another, parish council chairman Mike Irwin pointed out.

"Cyclists on their way to school, college and work would have to exit across the flow of A1 and Leeds-bound traffic on to the flyover," he told the Evening Press then.

"Pedestrians would face a detour of around a mile and a half and have to sprint across a slip road feeding the A64, or play Russian roulette with the dual carriageway."

It's a view the parish council holds to this day - and one with which the Highways Agency agreed. Quizzed on this by Evening Press readers yesterday, Mr Phillips said without 'substantial improvement' to the junction, the Askham Bryan interchange simply could not have coped with the extra traffic.

So we're left with the underpass - and the resulting traffic gridlock. What's causing those massive rush-hour tailbacks on the A64 - which can carry up to 60,000 cars a day - is the fact that the eastbound carriageway has been completely closed and a hole dug through it to allow the first stage of an underpass to be built. The carriageway will then be reconstructed above it.

That first phase of the project is due to be completed before Christmas. Until then, the contraflow system on the westbound carriageway allowing a single lane of traffic in each direction will continue. There will be a brief lull over Christmas when both lanes of the road will be open, before work begins on the westbound carriageway and traffic is restricted to a single lane in each direction again. The hope is the project will be completed by early summer 2002 - before the tourist season gets into full swing.

This still leaves York facing months of traffic misery - misery that will be made all the worse by the closure of Cemetery Road in both directions for four weeks from tomorrow for urgent sewer repairs.

That could not have been foreseen when the work at Copmanthorpe lights was being planned, but it's helping to turn York into a place to be avoided.

It's not only the private motorist who will be suffering over the next few months - the city's economic life will be hard hit too. Adam Sinclair, chairman of York Chamber of Trade, warned earlier this week the gridlock could cost York millions of pounds and leave it with a financial burden that will last for years.

The traffic problems were costing York "tens of thousands of pounds a day" in retail trade, at the very time when the city should have been gearing up for the Christmas rush, he said. Coming on the back of the problems caused by floods and foot and mouth, it meant York was in danger of being "not perceived at the moment as a city to do business in".

That view is shared by the city's Chamber of Commerce, whose chief executive Roland Harris said the combined effect of loss of seasonal trade, distribution problems for York companies and difficulty for employees in even getting to work could be "catastrophic".

The Highways Agency says some delays are inevitable for a major project like this. But it stresses it is constantly reviewing traffic management to minimise delays to motorists. A meeting is to be held tomorrow with York and North Yorkshire councils, contractors RMC and consultants Mouchel to look at ways of easing traffic flow, and David Phillips has undertaken to look at suggestions from Evening Press readers, including one to create two separate filter lanes on the A64's westbound carriageway so that traffic heading for Tadcaster Road does not need to get caught up in the congestion.

Local people can do their own bit to ease traffic flow, TC Martin Hemenway of York police points out - leaving their cars behind if they can walk or cycle to work, and if they need their vehicles, driving courteously and patiently and not trying to "jump the queue".

In the meantime, the Evening Press is pressing the Highways Agency to begin round-the-clock working so the underpass can be completed earlier, and York's business community is pushing the message that York is still open for business - and that by using public transport and avoiding peak times, delays can be minimised.

Disruption will still be inevitable. Ultimately, though, whatever the short-term misery - and the longer-term financial problems caused to businesses in York - the Copmanthorpe Gap is closed, and will never be reopened. That, at least, is something to celebrate.

Updated: 10:31 Thursday, October 25, 2001