Opening of Milton Keynes' newest roundabout is postponed after 'unsafe' power cabling faults discovered at eleventh hour

The much-publicised opening of MK’s newest roundabout has failed to take place due to a last minute glitch.

Last week council officials announced the costly four-armed roundabout on H9 Groveway, at the junction of Walton Drive, was ready to open on December 23.

The news was a relief to motorists following seven months of road closures and diversions.

But the much-anticipated opening had to be scrapped at the eleventh hour when some of the site equipment suddenly stopped working and the street lights around the roundabout failed to switch on.

A swift investigation was held and cabling faults affecting the power supply were discovered.

A council spokesman said today (Wednesday): “The investigation works and any repairs will continue over the next few days. This can take longer as the engineers need to locate the source of the problem with the power supply.”

She said Western Power Distribution (National Grid) engineers and Ringway had both investigated the issue and found the cabling faults that affected the streetlights on and around the new roundabout.

“Therefore, the decision as taken to not open the roundabout to traffic until the cabling fault was fixed as it would not be safe to do so. A new roundabout and road layout needs to be well-lit for drivers.”

Work on the new roundabout began on May 3 and a stretch of the H9 has been closed since then, with traffic diverted to the H10 Bletcham Way or H8 Standing Way grid roads.

The City Council was commissioned to design and install it on behalf of their business arm, Milton Keynes Development Partnership, to serve the planned housing development of Walton Manor, where there will be 174 new homes built on a 9.5-hectare site sitting between Brickhill Street and Simpson.

The roundabout was necessary to help traffic flow and reduce congestion from the new development.

Described as complex, the work included the diversion of six major power supply cables by Western Power Distribution.

For safety reasons due to an underground mains gas pipe, no mechanical diggers could be used and areas had to be completely hand dug.

This is expected to add to the complexity of the current remedial works.