New Industrial Estate Link Road Opening – Our Live Coverage

Wrexham.com were up early this morning to cover the opening of the £30 million new link road, the Wrexham Industrial Estate Access Road to give it the full title. Our exclusive live coverage is below, with pictures & video of the historic event – unique to any media outlet in town !

8am Wrexham.com are down in Holt Lodge awaiting to head up to the new link road for the official opening.  The opening will feature a cavalcade of vehicles, which is being formed up around Borras.

The view of the great and the good having a pre opening cuppa:

9am three coaches depart Holt Lodge to head up to the road itself.

We will have the opening then a tour of the road!

9.10am We have arrived at the road and there is an impressive convoy of vehicles on the left hand carriageway. Todays also the last day the old road both ways past the Greddington will be open.

9.15 now on the road awaiting speeches and the ribbon cut, which is an elaborate banner!

9.21 The mayor starts his speech, saying how quickly it seems to have been built, and well done to all.

9.23 There is a man shouting from his house over the road from by The Gredington Arms, seemingly unhappy at the road.

9:24 Speeches continue from the Minister

9:25 The mayor gets presented with a toy JCB!

9.28 The road opens…!

9.30 The massive convoy begins lots of waving and horns tooting!

9.35 The convoy stalls briefly as a lorry takes time to get going. However its a good chance for some snaps – here is the Minister :

9.40 The convoy is still going, JCB , Ettiquette , Bostock Aircon , Boneprene, R&R Engineering etc etc all processing past the dignitarys who are giving a loud cheer whenever horns are sounded!

9.42am The convoy ends, although the road itself is technically now open, its not open to the public to drive down. If they did half the council would be wiped out!

9.49am
The rain held off long enough for the opening but has now decided to pour down. The convoy has made its way to the industrial estate, so we reboard the coaches and now have a tour of the road. We believe the road will be open to proper traffic ‘soon’.

9.53 John Youd tells us hes worked on this project for over 16 years, so finds this morning odd as its all done and dusted. Below is a picture of the actual opening as the ‘ribbon’ was cut!

9.57 Apparently up to five layers of old roads were uncovered during works showing the history of the industrial estates previous roads. There are some bits to finish off, mainly landscaping it seems.

10am
It is quite surreal being on a guided tour of the industrial estate, perhaps this ought to be taken up as a formal coach tour for visitors to the town?

10.02am The convoy is still processing, and we have caught up to the back of it! We are now heading towards the southern access road. Did you know there are 2,600 meters of safety barriers on this development? Neither did we!

10.04 We are now at the new roundabout at Cross Lanes. Nearby four hectares of land has been purchased and a newt haven has been created to protect them. This has to be maintained forever!

10.05 High pressure gas supplies for north Wales cut through the site, so they had to be lowered.

10.07 Some more stats… 102,000 square metres of road was surfaced in this development. We are unsure what that is in terms of football pitches or the like.

10.14 The majority of the road is now open for public use, only one bit down to one lane. We are now heading up the hill towards town, on the roundabout by Wrexham Golf Club. 4.5 million vehicles used it during construction apparently!

10.15 Foresight from the 1970s ensured there was enough land to widen the section along to Borras. There is new acoustic fencing for residents to ‘cut compensation claims’ , someone behind says loudly ‘they hope!’

10.17 We are coming to the end of the trip, back to Holt Lodge. Wrexham.com will be interviewing people and raiding the complementary biccys, and one of us will be heading back to the office to get more pics and videos up – check back soon!

10:36 We have the first video of the actual formal opening, where a large banner was cut by Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant:

 11:15 We have just added in extra pictures to the above timeline – so have a look at the actual opening, and the Mayor being presented with a JCB!

11:46 This is our video of the convoy of vehicles, representing various stakeholders and businesses who will benefit or were involved in the road construction. In theory these were the first vehicles on the new road! Be warned, it contains plenty of hooting and cheering!

This wraps up our live coverage of what is a historic day for the town, but what do you think about the link road? We have started a thread in our forum here – so please join in the debate and leave your thoughts there! Click here to enter our forums.