Opinion : Another ‘Masterplan’ road crumbles in High Wycombe – Is the design fatally flawed?

Once again part of the ‘Masterplan’ road surface in Wycombe is crumbling.

It was only a short while ago the road was built yet already parts are crumbling. Indeed back in September 2018 a whole stretch of Desborough Road had to close for repairs after kerbs and the central reservation were damaged by traffic.

Some locals in the town have started calling the ‘Masterplan’ the ‘Humpy Dumpty’ road due to the number of times it has cracked up.

Just a few days ago, while on my regular lunchtime walk around Wycombe town centre, my good self happened to pay a visit to Westbourne Street. There in front of me was a gaping hole in the central reservation kerb and stone debris littering the carriageway.

As you can see from the pictures that accompany this blog it’s not as if it’s a small chink, this is a large piece of stone which has just separated from the kerb stone.

Yours truly spent a few minutes inspecting the other kerb stones in the vicinity and to my horror it seems the edges of the kerb stones are crumbling, hairline cracks are appearing and to my untrained eye the whole shebang looks like multiple failures are likely to occur in the near future.

Amazingly this is not even a busy stretch of road yet carriageway failures are apparent so soon after construction. Indeed anyone local knows to avoid these silly ‘Masterplan’ roads as there are quicker routes to get around town without getting stuck in the silly single carriageway roads that by their very design slow traffic down.

So what has caused this failure? Is it shoddy construction? Poor materials? Or a design that is fatally flawed? Who knows…? But one thing is for sure the road surface seems prone to an unusually high number of defects so soon after opening.

How many of you agree with me that it’s about time the whole ‘Masterplan’ scheme was consigned to the dustbin of bad ideas?

I dread to think how much public money has been wasted on the scheme and surely it’s about time Wycombe was given a road network fit for purpose so townspeople, businesspeople and shoppers from out of town can get about quickly and safely. The money wasted on the ‘Masterplan’ could have been spent rejuvenating Frogmoor.

Regular readers will know that my good self has been a critic of the scheme right from the start, the pictures that accompany this blog surely just confirm my thoughts.

If the ‘Masterplan’ was so good they would be installing it in Aylesbury. But they’re not! Long suffering High Wycombe has been lumbered with another ‘white elephant’, this time in the form of the ‘Masterplan’ which surely joins the long list of silly ideas and failures our town has endured like the Booker Stadium and putting a path through the magnificent Library Gardens. Thankfully sense prevailed and the last two didn’t get built unlike the ‘Masterplan’.

Wycombe has suffered the diversions and traffic jams while the infernal ‘Masterplan’ scheme was constructed but I fear in the weeks, months and years to come we will probably have to suffer more inconvenience while the road surface is repaired.

Do you agree with me that its about time the ‘Masterplan’ was scrapped and the roads that have been converted were ripped up and put back as they were before?

What do you think?

My blogs are published regularly here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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