We've had a number of inquiries about the intersection across to Galton Road near The Dog, as well as the lack of visible activity at the Kings Head junction. So, here's the latest as far as we can ascertain…
The intersection closure by The Dog is nothing to do with the proposal to close it permanently. It is closed because of gas mains work. As previously stated, any permanent closure would require a full public consultation process. Any feedback about how the current closure is affecting traffic flow would be interesting though.
The Kings Head roadworks have started, although it may not be immediately visible. They are currently doing tests on site including noise monitoring, asbestos and lead paint survey and so it doesn't look like much is happening. The contractors, we are told by Birmingham, will now be starting the main works in the middle of February, which is later than was planned originally. Part of the delay in the main contract has been with Utility companies, we understand as they need to re-route their services. No substantial work is possible until this happens although it is hoped they can bring forward their start date. The target date for completion of the project remains the early Summer.
After waiting so long, another couple of weeks shouldn't make much difference.
The Bearwood Blog 
The closure of the Galton Rd Junction has affected me. After one extra long crawl in the Hagley Rd traffic jam to the Balden Rd U-turn, and a good long wait for a big enough gap in the traffic to come back down again I’m using other routes and either adding to the High St congestion via Sandon Rd, or coming through Cape Hill and rat-running through the narrow back streets. Both take longer and make existing congestion worse. On one occasion traffic in Sandon Rd was backed up as far as the Hagley Rd junction, I had to wait in the Hagley Rd right turn lane for several minutes until there was enough space on Sandon Rd for the car in front of me to cross into Sandon Rd. I didn’t see anything specific causing the delay in traffic other than the City Rd traffic lights.
Thanks Jane, that is really useful and we can use it when (if?) Highways come back with a proposal for permenant closure.
To add to the debate
The traffic on Beechwood Road appears significantly more heavy than usual this evening now most are back at work. I assume this is the effect of the closure at Galton Road. Replacing a non residential street “rat-run” with a residential street “rat-run” doesn’t seem sensible. I would hope the council are monitoring altered traffic volumes during this closure
I am so pleased to see that work is AT LAST underway on this horrible, dangerous junction. I commute to work on foot and cross Hagley Road at the King’s Head twice a day. It is terrifying to cross and so often, drivers don’t indicate so I’m halfway across the road when there’s a car almost on top of me.
And the underpass… oh, I’ll be so glad to see the back of that! I have never, ever felt safe walking through one, and that one (well, aren’t they all…) is used as a public toilet. I won’t tell you what I’ve seen down there when I *have* ventured through it (holding my nose, of course). During heavy rain it floods completely so you can’t use it at all, and you’re left with this horrible “oh heck, gotta run!” thing to sprint through the traffic.
Unfortunately, I was crossing while the green man was doing his thing (on Monday evening) and STILL nearly had some dipstick drive into me, but hopefully people will get used to it, and I welcome the improvements. It’s rather tedious to see people in other places online moaning about it causing “traffic chaos” while they do the work – there’s traffic chaos every time there’s a prang at that junction!
One thing – how long will pedestrians have to cross? Living Streets have a campaign at the moment about giving pedestrians enough time to get over the road, based on the speed at which people walk. Children walk slower than the time currently allowed by crossings (and of course people who are elderly or who have general mobility issues) – with a lot of people using the crossing being schoolkids, I hope this will be taken into account. I’ve put the link below (I’m not anything to do with Living Streets, but as someone who walks a lot, I’m always interested in their campaigns. Hoping for a “Why must people park all over the pavement so I have to walk in the road and risk being run over?” campaign next. Lordswood Road, I’m looking at you! (Not that it’s in Sandwell, of course…)).
Helen, the time people get to cross is one of my bugbears. At the Bear junction you’d be lucky if Usain Bolt could cross between the Bear and Coffee Junction in the time the green man flashes…not that you can tell because you can’t see it when crossing. We’re talking about getting some of those lights which flash the amount of seconds left – they seem to have them everywhere on the continent, but we don’t seem to have caught up. However, the ones at the Kings Head junction are being done by Birmingham, and if the Wolverhampton Road-Hagley Road lights are anything to go by, I’m not overly optimistic, but we’ll see.
There’s a pretty bad on Lordswood Road – if you’re heading down from Bearwood, the first set of lights by the school take forever to change to the green man, then the next set as you near the Old House at Home pub gives you about 3 seconds. It’s not in a good spot, either, in a valley, because cars are reluctant to stop because they need their speed to get back up the hill the other side! But again… that one’s Birmingham’s baby.
Oh, actually – something else. Those lights are AWFUL at the Bear/T. C. Hayes/Coffee Doodah junction. Why aren’t they elevated? It’s ridiculous. If there’s lots of people waiting to cross, you cannot see when the lights have changed for pedestrians. Whoever dreamt that system up has clearly never crossed a road in their lives!
Well it was a wonderful idea (Birmingham Council?) to try to stop the right turn from the Hagley Road West at the Kings Head into Bearwood High Street, only problem is nothing stops motorists ignoring the no right turn sign, and they are!
I presume this was to stop the backlog of traffic building up behind the right turners, I come home this way every day and every day someone is turning right.
What can be done to prevent it?