Salford: Chapel Street roadworks spark chaos as locals say emergency services are getting stuck in gridlock

A project to give pedestrians more space, create extra room for buses, and install new bike lanes will close Chapel Street in one direction for a year. Salford council said the closure ‘remains the safest, most efficient option to complete the works’.

But ‘two hour long’ queues were seen in the area in its first few days, with motorists and buses being ‘gridlocked’, and cyclists and pedestrians facing walking through the choked-up thoroughfare.

Residents also say emergency vehicles responding to incidents on blue lights have been ‘stuck’ in the traffic and ‘given up’ trying to get through.

“It’s been pretty chaotic,” Antony said on Wednesday (May 14), who has called Chapel Street home for two years.

“Every evening around rush hour, 5-7pm, I would say there’s, most days, two or three emergency vehicles that cannot get through or are taking 20 minutes to get through everything.

“They seem to give up because they cannot get through the traffic. They are either abandoning where they are going or get delayed.

“It has been a daily occurrence that there will be a sirened car that cannot get through the traffic, there’s nowhere for the cars ahead to move out the way.

“I have seen them stuck there and accept they cannot get anywhere. They still have the siren on.”

Watch: I tested nightmare roadworks and filmed the chaos in gridlock

A day later, it appeared drivers avoided the area. At rush hour, long stretches of the road were empty and there was an absence of slow moving queues.

Emergency services have responded to questions over how they will cope with traffic by saying their crews ‘trained to deal’ with congestion.

“Our response drivers are trained to the highest standards to deal with congestion and technology in our vehicles allows us to respond in the quickest possible time,” said a GMP spokesperson.

A North West Ambulance Service spokesperson added: “Our ambulance crews are advanced drivers and trained to deal with a range of conditions, including traffic congestion. Our reporting systems also allow crews to report any issues they encounter responding to incidents.”

And a Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) spokesperson said: “Our crews are trained to adapt to a range of road conditions when called to an incident, especially in the city centre where congestion is common. GMFRS also has a range of technology to ensure our response times are as quick as possible.”

Despite the training and equipment, it appears emergency workers were thwarted by the traffic earlier this week, as images showed a fire engine struggling to make its way along Chapel Street.

In response to complaints, Councillor Mike McCusker, lead member for planning, transport and sustainable development, said: “Salford City Council have planned the works on Chapel Street carefully, and as part of that process all partners have considered and explored a number of options to maintain traffic flows in the city centre.

“This was in partnership with Manchester City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester.

“The current one-way closure remains the safest, most efficient option to complete the works, balancing the needs of residents, businesses, pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport in a constrained city centre environment.

“The one-way closure extends over approximately 400 meters of the city centre road network. While roadworks can impact disruption to traffic flow, the periods of increased congestion and delays are primarily due to the overall capacity of the network being affected by a combination of incidents, popular events, and high vehicle volumes, rather than solely by the temporary roadworks.”