Darwen faces road closures after floods (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Darwen faces road closures after floods
3:43pm Saturday 30th June 2012 in News
BUSY roads in Darwen could be closed for several weeks after flash floods which surprised the town on Thursday night.
Businesses in the town were only just getting over the devastation of floods that occurred after the River Darwen burst its banks last Friday.
But a torrential downpour on Thursday saw roads once again turned into rivers, while homes and businesses fought against the incoming torrents.
A section of Railway Road, near the railway bridge, and part of Atlas Road, were closed by police after a manhole sunk, leaving a huge hole in the road surface.
Jim Walker from the Environment Agency said: “We are talking to the people affected by the recent flooding in Darwen to help explain why it happened and what the options are for the future.
“The North West region recently experienced exceptional amounts of rain, leading to extensive flooding which saw some of the same properties affected by surface water flooding on Thursday and the bad weather last Friday.
“The initial flooding was caused by a bockage in a culvert, where the River Darwen runs in a tunnel for more than 500m.
“On Thursday, the further short and sharp heavy showers which hit led to surface water flooding in Blackburn Road where some properties were affected.”
Darwen MP Jake Berry said: “I have spoken to the Environment Agency who told me that some of the remedial work, like cleaning out the gullies, had been completed after the first flood, but some was still to be done.
“I will be meeting with the agency again next week to get a full report on the cause of the flood and what can be done to prevent them.
“Some homes have been flooded twice in four days which is not acceptable.
“We must look to work with the Environment Agency and the council to protect the people of Darwen from future floods.”
Comments(5)
prince of darkness
says...
7:59pm Sat 30 Jun 12
past it wrote:No doubt they should inspect drains but someone forgot. How many forgotten drains are out there. They are only needed in times like this, which shows up with poor maintenance. Then costs repairs way over any inspection service costs.
Shame that the drains had not been cleaned before any floods, the Environment Agency should have to pay compensation to all those affected, they have failed to do their job correctly just to save money.
CapitaBackHander
says...
12:36pm Sun 1 Jul 12
I witnessed that Thursday 4.20ish downpour and was amazed at how quickly it flooded and that the drains still seemed to be blocked at HIGHER levels meaning the rain washed down from Avondale e.t.c. - that said Shadsworth was knee deep from ten or so mins!
Darrens Delivery Service
says...
9:56pm Sun 1 Jul 12
Why the hell dont they get people working on it during the night instead of closing the road wondering what to do next.
Also on another sore point, Can any-one tell me why the traffic lights outside the leisure centre change to red every 30 seconds, no one in bus lane, no one coming down from the health center, and no one in sight waiting to cross.
You could not make it up.
CapitaBackHander
says...
3:01pm Mon 2 Jul 12
Darrens Delivery Service wrote:The road at the side of the DLC and the job centre was resurfaced. Not sure if you are aware BUT they diamond drill in sensors - you see the black inch marks on approach to other lights? Well they havn't bothered to do this and now the lights just rotate in a stupid fashion i.e. bus lane on Green no bus or Bus Lane on RED and bus sat there for min+ Like you say DLC/Job centre side street Green when no traffic AND the pedestrian crossing is also now wrong - no time to cross both roads.
Wonder which roads are closing ? It bad enough now having Railway road closed.
Why the hell dont they get people working on it during the night instead of closing the road wondering what to do next.
Also on another sore point, Can any-one tell me why the traffic lights outside the leisure centre change to red every 30 seconds, no one in bus lane, no one coming down from the health center, and no one in sight waiting to cross.
You could not make it up.
past it says...
4:41pm Sat 30 Jun 12