A6 at Broughton to close as flooding work gets underway

The opening of the £32m James Towers Way has meant engineers can now close the A6 for a month to carry out repairs to a culvert beneath the road.

The drainage work will last until Friday November 10 - something Lancashire County Council could not have contemplated when Garstang Road was a major artery for the city of Preston, carrying 24,000 vehicles a day.

“There have been occurrences of flooding on the A6 at Broughton in the past and whilst the county council has carried out some work previously to alleviate the problem, investigations have indicated that improvements to the drainage system are needed,” said Coun Keith Iddon, County Hall’s cabinet member for highways and transport. “This can only be achieved by closing Garstang Road.

“The work will involve deep excavations to access and repair the culvert. This would have been extremely disruptive in the past due to the very high levels of traffic through Broughton, which is why we have delayed it until this week, with the new bypass now being open, and far lower levels of traffic through the village.

“We’re keen to do this work as soon as possible to relieve the flooding problems for people in this area before winter when the risk of flooding increases. There will of course be some disruption to local traffic needing to access Broughton village and surrounding properties, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this work will cause, however we hope the new bypass will make the necessary diversion fairly short and straightforward.”

The A6 will be shut near to Broughton Police Station. A signed diversion will be in place.