Ipswich: Work begins on Civic Drive roundabout with motorists left facing delays

14 comments

• I would like to see the evidence and statistics that show traffic lights are a force for good that the council must be reading. Otherwise I will be forced to believe that they are uneducated, illogical and irrational with no care for the public. Either that or they are sponsored by the traffic light company. I say we check all their bank accounts to see who is getting the back hander from the road works industy because there is no good reason to remove a functioning roundabout to replace it with more traffic lights. I would, however, appreciate the pot holes on that roundabout being fixed...mostly caused by their cheapness in fixing roads with that rubbish surfacing stuff that relies on the weight of cars to be pressed in that is now falling apart after only a short amount of time. God they annoy me.

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  George

  Friday, September 28, 2012

• Still can't get my head round this one, Civic Drive roundabout is quite possibly the only one in Ipswich that works, even at peak times. Nothing wrong with the underpasses here either, they could have been refurbished at a fraction of the cost. I'm quite surprised our council didn't come up with the idea of maybe using the centre of the roundabout for an outdoor café, seeing as a restaurant was centrepiece here many years ago!

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  DP

  Friday, September 28, 2012

• I don't know how many lights there are in Ipswich, but on my 1.5 mile journey to work I go through eighteen of them.

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  Winston Barrington Jr.

  Thursday, September 27, 2012

• Almost speechless. Seems the 21st Century Ipswich that planners want is a ghost town, devoid of life with everyone shopping in out of town developments or in Norwich or Colchester. The continual persecution of drivers in the Ipswich area is appalling, giving planners and their masters the opportunity to use us as a social experiment and spend an obscene amount of (our) money doing it. Both Ben Gummer and the Star should be listening to the vast majority of locals who are strongly opposed to this work. By the way, does anyone know how many traffic lights we have in Ipswich?

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  Edward Kay

  Wednesday, September 26, 2012

• i think that what people should remember is that this council doesn't want cars to use the roads in Ipswich this is not been done to ease congestion it is being done to make it easier for the people who walk use buses and cycle to get from the town center to our "jewel in the crown" the waterfront .. this council wants to force us all to leave our cars at home and use public transport or walk ..instead all they are doing is making it so difficult for anyone coming from out of town to get around and if they are able to get in town will be ripped off by extortionate car parking and lets be honest what is there to come to Ipswich for??..i have said it before on here it is only a matter of time before someone dies in this town because an ambulance or a fire engine is unable to get to an emergency because of the gridlock on the roads and what about businesses who use cars or vans what are the supposed to do ? this council say they are making town fit for the 21st century but fit for what ? twenty one million pounds would have gone a long way to put a lot of other things right in this town .

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  Paul Hales

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• i think ipswich are trying to get in the guinness book of world records for the most roadworks and street closures they can have going at one time,its bad enough round the one way near waterfront and college now they have to go and ruin civic drive it ran smoothly as roundabout so why dont they listen and leave it,now i see they have closed a road near christchurch park yet more diversions and they wonder why ppl dont shop in ipswich,well all these traffic lights will look pretty at xmas flashing red,amber green

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  maria stu

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• Why is Ipswich Town Centre so appalling to visitors and shoppers? Because if you choose to drive into town the council, want to stop you doing so. They narrow roads from two lanes to one, the replace round abouts with traffic lights and then put a few more sets of lights in just twenty yards further along. They put pedestrian crossings in the most ridiculous places. The car park charges bear no relation to the quality of the town centre it's self. If you didn't work in Ipswich Town centre, what can anyone honestly tell me would be worth visiting Ipswich Town Centre for. I have lived in or around Ipswich all my life, and unless you worklive or maybe are attending a football match, I can't see anything what so ever that would entice me to visit. Ipswich and it's town centre authorities have and continue to fail, and as I have said on many occaisons within this forum, why can't they simply talk to ther counterparts in other towns who are miles ahead of Ipswich, and simply copy what they are doing. Bury St. Edmunds, is now undoubtably vastly supierior to grotty Ipswich, and in my opionon should be considered the County Town of Suffolk. If you want a mobile phone, or need to visit a charity shop then yes Ipswich is the place to go, but if you want a nicer environment, better shops, cheaper car parking, then it is Bury St Edmunds every time...............maybe also Norwich every so often.

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  england1770

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• Have Ipswich got a shed load of traffic lights sitting around doing nothing? As WE are a small town with lights making us sit around going nowhere. Wont be long till the villages which are being used as rat runs gets traffic lights.

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  an idea

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• going to be mayhem! Where will all the fans go on match days? going to be madness!

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  Jason Pilbury

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• we the british public are all stupid ? we sit here believing the country has no money thats why we put up with all the budget cuts yet ibc has 21 million they can throw away on a road project that no one wants try spending it on council houses police officers the homeless

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  ipsjohn

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• These roadworks are the first time I have ever experienced delays on this roundabout. Not sure why they are ruining this town with more and more lights.

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  Winston Barrington Jr.

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• Great. More chaos and disruption, because there are obviously not enough road works all over town already? I have no choice other than to drive through town as I live in town, and the last few months have been a nightmare. Why spend £21,000,000 on turning a roundabout into a cross roads? What evidence is there that this will ease congestion in the long run? If we want to encourage people to come into Ipsiwch then there needs to be reasonably priced parking available (you can park all day in Colchester for £2.50), indpendant shops need to be encouraged to fill some of the vacant units that are available, allow no more betting and charity shops - Carr Street has plenty already. I don't really see that changing a couple of junctions is going to encourage people to come in to Ipswich?

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  Emmy Lou

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• The work is to improve the look of the town? Who cares what it looks like as long as it works! I hadn't realised that the roundabout was a problem. Once done there will be lights at the junction with Wolsey Street and Greyfriars, then less than 100m later there are another set of lights, and now with the new junction there will be more lights. So in the space of 300m or so there are three sets of lights which will all hamper traffic flow if someone wants to cross as they are filling in the underpasses. Look at the mess they made of Bishops Hill and surrounding roads. St Helen's Street is usually jammed by traffic that would have travelled down Back Hamlet, and traffic coming from Duke Street seems to have priority over traffic that is going tofrom Fore Hamlet.

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  Matt Mckenzie

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012

• Why will traffic lights make the difference? Roundabouts look pretty, keep the traffic flowing. Lights are manmade monstrosities. Anyway it is not the design of a road which makes me visit somewhere it is the quality of shops offered. As an aside what is going to happen when football is at home and there are hundreds of people crossing the road minus the underpass, What I presume has happened here is overpaid men in suits have sat round a table making decisions about what they have no ideas about. My advise leave alone what works and fix all in Ipswich that is so badly broken. Who I feel sorry for are the shop owners. I, as a shopper have the choose to leave Ipswich behind to find a roadworkless haven - they are having to ride a continuous storm having their trade battered. It is going to take a long time for people to gain faith and return to town having faced this summer of disruption especially as other towns have so much more to offer.

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  J

  Tuesday, September 25, 2012