ONE of Hereford’s busiest road junctions won’t be closed during the building of a congestion-busting road.

Work on the city’s £30 million link road connecting Edgar Street with Commercial Road is set to begin in a matter of weeks.

The construction team which has been commissioned by Herefordshire Council to build the route says it is looking forward to getting started.

“We’ve got a long-established relationship with Herefordshire,” said Peter Evans from Abergavenny based Griffiths Contractors.

“We have done a lot of projects here including the Roman
Road and Eign Gate. 

“Work on the link road will start in the third week of
August.

“By September we hope to start work on the Commercial
Road junction, although I don’t envisage it will be closed at any point.”

The route – which also takes in the old Pegasus football pitch known as Essex Arms – is expected to be complete by November 2017.

An exhibition at Hereford FC’s Edgar Street ground this week gave the public a chance to glimpse the route which, according to the council, will open up access
to areas for development and regeneration which are currently difficult to access, as well as taking traffic off
Hereford’s creaking inner ring road.


The authority says a quieter Newmarket and Blueschool
Street will allow them to be upgraded for “easier pedestrian movement” between High Town and the Old Market.

Further down the line, about 800 new homes are set to be built as part of an Urban Village on the Merton Meadow car park.

Opponents of the scheme say the new route won’t cut
congestion. Garden machinery business Ron Smith was one
business which was made the subject of a compulsory
purchase order by the council as its former headquarters
on Widemarsh Street was in the way of the route.

They have now relocated to a new site which is located
off Rockfield Road. Meanwhile, Jewson’s last year revealed they were going to lose a “significant area” of their Canal Road base because of the road, forcing it to downsize.